Drive over Hito Cajon

Quality asphalt road from San Pedro de Atacama (2,440 m asl) cruise the desolate plain at the beginning for a while and then begins to rise incredibly quickly. Most travelers will feel the head pressure, because after just a half hour drive they are more than four thousand meters above sea level. Roadside is decorated with the small monuments of truck drivers quite often, whom probably brakes failed. At 4663 meters the road suddenly converges to the gravel path and after 47 km from San Pedro it falls to the customs office Hito Cajon (the main road rises further to an unnamed saddle (4823 m asl) and then after a few tens of kilometers in paso Jama (4283 m nm) heads to Argentina).

Hito Cajon belongs among the highest located customs in the world. So it is not surprising that it is very cold there and customs officers hold office in unheated little house wearing down jackets. Most tourists aiming to Bolivia have only a breakfast here and enjoy the view for example of Cerro Toco Moutain.

Jackals are running around – they already know that tourists definitely leave something good from breakfast. Another attraction is the wreck of the old bus a few dozen meters from the customs office, which serves in this wilderness without any privacy as an ideal toilet:-)

Dusty road falls from the customs office towards the lagoon Blanca and from behind the volcano Juriques gradually begins to peep out much prettier and more famous Licancabur.

For some people the tour around Southwest Altiplano at customs Hito Cajon begins and for others ends. But anyway it's an experience for everyone.