Purmamarca to San Pedro de Atacama

The road leaves from Puramarca and climbs over a mountain at 4,200 meters, 12,600 feet. The Bike loses power at this altitude. The road drops down into a salt flat before climbing back to a higher altitude and continued beauty. I tried to stop and have lunch but gale force winds made it difficult to eat anything. I also was afraid to leave my motocycle parked on its kickstand because it came close to blowing over several times. No exageration.  

I was surprised to find an Argintine boarder crossing near the Jama pass. The post was at 4,200 meters, the pass at 4,400. I had problems with the customs agents over a lack of paperwork for my motorcycle. It was my fault that the customs agents at the Brasil boarder let me in without the required paperwork. Even though they knew the motorcycle was mine and was leaving the country, the lack of paperwork made it illegal. I had to wait in the customs office for about 2 hours with no explination of why I was waiting. At one point of my wait I was taken into a private office and shown a pair of handcuffs that "Oscar" said I should be wearing. Oscar was the head customs agent, a tall, fat, bearded mad that reminded me of Bluto from Popeye cartoons. He was also a grouch. Fitting name no? After I signed several documents I was allowed to cross into Chile. I was so happy to be released that I charged out of the office with my passport and motorcycle title still in hand, which I then dropped. The gale force wind grabbed ahold of the motorcycle title and blew it away. In one second it was gone. Forever. My passport was heavy enough that it stayed put. 

I was pretty upset about losing the title to the bike but was more worried about the fact that the sun was setting, I still had a 13,200 foot pass to cross, and about 2 hours of driving before I made the next town. I froze my ass off all the way to San Pedro de Atacama and was too worried about time to stop and take photos of the green and red salt lakes, the frozen rivers, and scale like ice formations that the wind created by freezing water at 45 degree angles to the ground, layered like fish scales.