We spent the night in the small village of Camp End. It is located on the northern end of Laguna Colorada which gets its name from the red color of the water. The microrganisms in the water give the lake its red color and also gives the flamingos their reddish/pink color.
Camp End is nothing more than a stopover for the 4x4 tour groups. There is no electricity and a very limited water supply. The only food available is whatever they had that day. In the mornings the winds are still, but in the late afternoons and at night the winds generally are strong, fierce, and cold.
We decided to get a late start to allow the sun to warm up the air temperature and our bikes did not like sitting outside in the cold overnight. The day started where it had ended the day before, more sand and two very tired bodies. Vistas in this area were just beautiful!
I started my day slowly and easy I was still very sore and weak from the ride the day before. I had another fall trying to change tracks. I just did not have the strength to muscle the GS over to a new track.
The wind started blowing very early and the fight was on again. We decided to go see some geysers and also Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde. We made a short stop at the geysers and continued to the two Lagunas.
As we traveled to Laguna Verde the sand started blowing and it was very heavy, making it difficult to see, and I was tired. The surface was hard so handling the GS was not very difficult. With that said I am not sure that I know what happened next – either the wind pushed me over or I softened my grip on the handlebars, but somehow I ended up drifting over to the center hump of sand which was about 18 inches high. The front tire buried itself in the sand hump and I went flying over the handlebars landing on my back. I was very lucky that no damage was done to me or the GS. It was very difficult to upright the GS. After getting going again we managed to make it to Laguna Verde.
After we visited Laguna Verde we started our search for the Bolivian Immigration Office. The Bolivian Customs Office was our first planned stop once we were able to locate it. The Customs Office is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It was located at an elevation of 16,500 feet. Like the Customs Office, Immigration was also located in the middle of nowhere. After a few minutes we were out of Bolivia and into Chile.