I have now reached the Atacama desert and feel the huge Temperature difference. After a freezing night it gets very hot during the day and the air is so dry that I have a headache and bleeding nose most of the afternoon. Today is very flat, on a road that passes broken soil and endless stretches of nothing. I manage 270km and reach the crossing into the Andes at night. There is a restaurant and the owner let’s me sleep in a fenced area behind. The landscape is so open that I’m happy for some shelter from the wind and a nice breakfast before starting the climb into the Andes.