We awake before 06h00, get packed and eat breakfast. We are on the road at approx. 07h15.
Our first stop is to check out a kraal of llamas, and we get treated to some llama porn too 🙂 .
The second stop is Laguna Hedionda (which means stinking); and it does; though the wind is strong here and this dilutes the smell. There is also a thin layer of ice around some parts of the lake- a tribute to the cold night.
The next stop is Kollpa Laguna and then Salar de Chalviri.
We travel past the thermal baths to go to the base lakes of Volcano Licancabur (you may remember I named this my favourite volcano when I was in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile and saw it from the other side of the border). The base lakes are Laguna Blanca (White Lake) and Laguna Verde (Green Lake) .
There is a huge amount of pillow lava in the area, attesting to the large explosions of the past and the distance that these volcanic activities covered. The flat valley around the volcanos is also covered in volcanic rocks that were spat out of the volcanos in previous explosions.
Before lunch we get to the Thermal baths at Laguna Polques and take a 15min dip in the 33°C fresh water springs while having a view of the expansive lake and snowcapped mountains in the background.
Once we eat lunch we head off towards the Chilean border to see the Desierto de Dali, named after the artist Salvador Dali and his art style, which can be imagined in the rock forms. There are also volcanoes that have multicoloured layers after many explosions. I can’t help but think that they remind me of sand bottle art. We are now in the south west corner of Bolivia. The next day we will travel parallel to the Chile/Bolivia border along the Andes.
Our next activity is a walk around Geisers Sol de Manana, 5,000m, which in any other country would be on a boardwalk or across a mark path, but not in Bolivia. Here you can just walk around wherever you please, without knowledge of depth of ground below you! Two weeks before a Japanese lady fell into an acidic, high temperature pool and died.
We spend the night in Huayllajara at 4,000m. We don’t settle in for very long before going for a sunset trip to Laguna Colorado (Coloured Lagoon). This lagoon is very intriguing as it contains algae that changes colour depending on the time of day and amount of photosynthesis. Thus the lagoon is normal water colour at night and in the mornings, changing to orange and then a dark red. The lagoon is also home to hundreds of flamingos and other birdlife.
