Laguna Cejar is North Chile’s Dead Sea. Floating and relaxing effortlessly is the name of the game. UNFORTUNATELY, though, there are no magma chambers under this lake- so the water is a bit cold for my liking. Having said that, the view of the Andes is glorious!!
Part of the trip is to go to Ojos de Salar (Eyes of the salt pan) which is nothing exciting, but gives Instagram fanatics a place to take perspective photos due to large, dry lake. No a very exciting stop though.
The last stop- for sunset drinks and snacks- is the best. Tebenquiche is located in the north of Salar de Atacama (Atacama salt flat) at 2,300m amsl. It is scientifically significant in that it contains stromatolites. Stromatolites are formed by bacteria and are thought to have significantly increased the oxygen on our planet several million years ago by the process of photosynthesis. They are now only found here, in Australia and in the Amazon.
Stromatolites are the mounds that you will see in the lagoon in the photos. From a purely aesthetic point of view- the blues around this lake are so beautiful and so many hues- together with the blue sky, and then changing colours during sunset- it is purely WOW.
Laguna Chaxa contained the most flamingos out of all the lakes at the time of visiting. The lake gets visits from the three types of flamingos that call Chile home: Andean, Chilean and James flamingos. They differ in height, beak and tail feather colours.
As I seem to be writing this post back to front, I will actually close off the San Pedro de Atacama portion of the blog with photos of the actual township!
This area has been known to be inhabited since 11,000 years ago. The local people are called Lican and the indigenous language is Kunza. This language has nearly died out as the Spanish would cut the local’s tongue out if you spoke it!
San Pedro is not an attractive town by any means, but the surroundings are.
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