What. A. Day.

Time	Where and What
06:00	Our alarms begin going off. (Photo from the previous evening...before the ice crust formed on the large (and in some places deep) pool of water surrounding the hotel.)
06:30	We're fully roused and packing. Nick heads down to check on the Super Tenere, which had objected to the cold weather the previous morning in El Tholar (~30˚F). It's even colder here in Uyuni this morning.
07:30	Indeed, the Super Tenere is still unhappy about the cold, so we push it through a ice-crusted pool of water to the sidewalk on the other side of the street, where it can sit and warm in the sun. Ryan heads to breakfast (Nick has already eaten).
09:15	Too many attempts to start; battery weak. Back-up battery unhappy about the cold. We nose the V-Strom up to the Super Tenere and connect the jumper cables.
09:45	Success! Both bikes are purring curbside, we're checked out and ready to look for some salt flats: Salar de Uyuni.
10:15	Salar de Uyuni is a bizarre sight to behold. Worth the 30-min backtrack through Colchani. We watch a few tourist guides drive their trucks out into the white plain, though don't take the time to follow. Parts of the salar are solid; parts are more akin to quicksand.
11:00	Heading south again: gassing up in Uyuni for the ride to the Chilean border.
11:15	So much for tarmac. The road out of Uyuni is as fine a road as hard-pack can be, but it isn't asphalt. Still, we're able to make decent time along this road. I just have to stash my phone in the handle of my tank bag since too many bumps make it jump out of its cradle.
12:00	Sometime just prior to noon, we pause road-side for a mictatory and masticatory break. My legs have dried from sloshing around at the salar. Only salt remains. Sometime after the break, we passed through some fun rock formations and saw another tolvanera!
14:00	After a long and rocky detour around where they were working on the road (similar to Dalton Highway work: drench with water, then grade), we took another roadside break. The ecotourist restaurant/hospedaje was not open, but the scenery was great!
14:45	A bath in the powder. As noted above, this is a fine road as far as hard-packed dirt is concerned. But just before the Chilean border, there was a cloud of dust after Nick went over a rise. Knowing it indicated a soft surface, I slowed, but next thing I new, I was on my head, sliding down the road. Slid for several feet before picking myself up and attempting to dust myself off. This stuff is like talcum powder: once it gets ahold of you, it doesn't want to let go. Radioed to let Nick know I was down, but okay. Picked the bike up and moved it off to the side of the road. For me: slight bruising of the right hip and maybe a small bruise on my shoulder. Very glad for the riding suit and helmet! For the bike: the right pannier is bent out of shape (again), and various damage along the right side: broken blinker, bent brake pedal, broken hand guard, bent crash bar, scratches on the plastic and on the mirror. For the gear: scratches on the helmet. Took about 30 minutes to gather myself, check things over (body and bike), and ensure that the right pannier was secure (a couple spare lengths of rope), then we were underway again. Pretty extensive scratches on the helmet. Very glad that wasn't my scalp. Tiny bruise above my right hip at the end of my middle finger. It gets pretty stiff after I've been still for a bit, but isn't much bother after I get moving. Tiny bruise atop the right shoulder. I pretty much only notice it if I poke and prod at it.
15:15	Arrival at the border. On the Bolivian side, the migración official tried to extort 15 bolivianos out of us. Having read that this was a practice, but that there was no such fee, I politely refused, citing what we'd learned from other travelers via iOverlander. After a bit of back-and-forth, he found an excuse to back down: "Oh, you have US passports...no fee." Aduana was super fast on the Bolivian side, and we were on our way. The road changed abruptly from packed dirt to asphalt at the border. On the Chilean side, the migración official ignored us for 5 min. When I knocked on the window, he held up his hand impatiently, indicating that we should wait. A few minutes later, he opened the window and bruskly asked for my passport. Despite his one-word responses, the process was simple enough. Aduana wanted to look through our bags. They confiscated an orange from Nick, but we were on our way by 1615.
16:20	We see a sign with an image of a gas pump, and underneath: "Calama 200 km". We're not going to make it 200 km on the gas in our tanks, so we turn around to see if there is gas to be found in Ollagüe. A couple quick conversations inform us that there are no gas stations, but the guy at the hospedaje sells some gas and the minimarket around the corner sells some gas but isn't open until 5:30. We try the hospedaje, but can't get an answer at the door after several attempts. We head to the minimarket to wait and I work on straightening out the bike a bit more after our bath in the powder. No fuel for the 200 km from Ollagüe to Calama, but it sure is a lovely drive!
18:00	Minimarket employee finally shows up. She tries our credit cards to no avail. We offer USD, but she'll only accept a $100 bill, not the $20 bills we're carrying. We scrape together a total of 420 bolivianos, for which she sells us 15 liters of gas. Not as much as we were hoping for, but it should do the trick. I interrupted Nick just as he was about to take a photo of our fueling situation in Ollagüe; thus: no photo. It was about like this, though, from our previous trip to Rayones, Nuevo Leon, Mexico: a "pre-"enactment, if you will. Just picture fewer trees and a much less adequate funnel.
18:30	We're finally underway from the border town. Unfortunately, dusk has set in, with the sun falling behind the mountains, and we still have 2.5 hours between us and the AirBnB in Calama. It's chilly, but the heated gear helps. The silhouetted mountains are gorgeous, as are the salt flats fading in the last light of the day, and the road is smoothly paved.
20:15	A road-side pause, not only for micturation, but also for marveling at the open sky. Constellations are all different down here, but I think I can pick out the Southern Cross, and that may have been Mars that we saw during the drive. At one point, there was even a blazing shooting star! Photo from http://earthsky.org/tonight/signpost-of-southern-skies
21:15	Made it to the AirBnB: located in a large apartment building on the sixth floor. It's nice to be able to rinse off the powder and settle in. We head out for a bite to eat and a stop at the nearby ATM to get Chilean pesos. Then: sleep comes quite readily after a long day of traveling. The view from this AirBnB is pretty nice!