Atacama Part II: Lagunas Altiplanicas y Geysers del Tatio

I meant to get to this post shortly after the first Atacama post, but I have been packing, working on my Machine Learning course project and cleaning!  It's hard to believe that I will be on my way back to the States later this evening.  I'm sure I'll have a post on that later though.  Point at hand: second half of the Atacama trip.

On Thursday, May 7th, George and I did the Lagunas Altiplanicas (Highland Lakes) tour. This tour was recommended for later in the trip to Atacama because the lagoons are at about 13,000 ft. We left early in the morning, but once the sun came up we enjoyed the views.  We were warned to dress warmly, and we had experienced some pretty cool weather in the mornings, so we were both sure to wear lots of layers. We held up better than the Brazillians who were on the trip with us, but it was cold! I would definitely recommend bringing a winter coat for this tour and the geysers tour.  It's hard to dress for both because you start the day freezing, but end up sweating by the end of the tour.  I think the best bet is to wear tons of layers and then bring a good sized back pack to stuff them into as it warms up! Ok, enough with the blah blah, picture time!

Laguna Miscanti

The Highlands

After brief visits to the Miscanti and Miñiques lagoons (because it was quite cold) we enjoyed the views on the way to our next pit stop, Socaire.  Socaire is a small village with ancient agricultural terraces and a few old churches. The agricultural terraces date from the Inca presence in Chile, which was brief due to Spanish conquest. I didn't have many very nice photos of the terracing, but wikipedia has a nice one. I did take a photo of choclo (type of corn) and rica-rica, which is a lemony-minty-rosemary-y type herb that is recommended for everything from a belly ache to altitude sickness to heartache. I really enjoyed the smell of rica rica! We brought some back to the lodge with us, intending to make some tea, but we forgot all about it in the excitment of Friday's tour!

Choclo

Rica Rica

After the first pit stop, we continued on our way through the National Flamingo Reserve and the Atacama Salt Flat to Laguna Chaxa. I've been sitting here trying to think of some words to say about walking around the salt flat towards the lagoon, but it's hard to put the experience into words.  The area just seems so inhospitable. Well, it is inhospitable. Even when you come upon a lake, it's likely much too salty to drink, and there are areas in the Atacama desert that haven't had rain in thousands of years.  It's just a pretty amazing place to check out!

Some of the desert did actually look like desert.

Atacama Salt Flat

One fun fact (and I don't have a picture here) was that the trails we walked on are maintained simply by hosing the paths down with water.  They actually create roads that way too in the desert. The water melts the salt, and then it gets rolled flat, and dries very hard very quickly.  The only time this is not great is when there is rain (which is rare, but picture below).

When we made our way to the lake we were treated to views of two of the three types of flamingos that inhabit the flamingo reserve.  The James's flamingo was elsewhere for the season, but I was able to get nice photos of the Chilean Flamingo and the Andean Flamingo! 

Chilean Flamingo on the left and an Andean Flamingo on the right.

I love watching them fly!

Water is a problem for salt roads.

Our final stop on the tour was at the small village of Toconao, where we were able to wander the local shops and take photos of the church (dates from 1750). I know I should take photos of the old churches, and I did, but I liked the photo below better. This is a town with less than 800 people, and it has a nicer futbol field than most places in the US!  I love the futbol love in the rest of the world!

Futbol! Even in the smallest of towns!

On Friday we did the Geysers del Tatio tour. I didn't expect to be as impressed by this tour as I was... I mean really, geysers (pronounced geezers in Chile, giggle), what's the big deal? Ok, I stand corrected.  It was much cooler than I expected.  Also much colder than I expected, actually.  I was wearing pretty much every layer that I brought with me, thick wool socks, and my hiking boots, but my toes were still icicles!  Anywho, the tour guide picked us up at 5 am, and we arrived for the sunrise. We were told that this is the best time to see them because of the contrast of colors and because this is when they are most active.  As you can see below, they were definitely active!

Geysers!

Many Geysers!

During this trip (and during the highland lagoons tour) we were treated to sights of the wild ancestor of the alpaca, the vicuña. They are actually protected in Chile and are rebounding from being an endangered species.  When they were declared endangered in 1974, there were only about 6,000 animals left, but today the population is back up to around 350,000.  Our tour guide told us in his lifetime he's seen the shift in the vicuñas' attitude towards humans.  Since they are no longer hunted (or at least it's against the law), they are a bit less shy of humans.  We were able to get pretty close for pictures.

A vicuña!

Because I love me some macro shots.

Our final stop of the tour was in the small village of Machuca. So this village is a tourist trap if ever there was one, but I enjoyed it! There actually is only one family that lives there and maintains the village and provides some food and beverages for tourists.  There were llama kababs (very tasty, a bit like lamb) and fried goat cheese empanadas (not very goat cheesy, more like random white cheese, but also tasty). Again I failed with the pictures of those foods, or of the church which everyone else tramped to go take a photo of, but I did get the photo below.  The moon still being out was a nice touch!  We also made another pit stop or two on the way back to San Pedro for photo ops. The cacti photos didn't make the cut, but I had to include another flamingo one for good measure.

Machuca

Flamingos are also cooler than I thought.

After returning from the tour, we spent the afternoon relaxing. We hoped to do a star-gazing tour Friday night, but we found out our transfer to the airport the next morning was picking us up at 7, so we skipped it. We did make it to a good restaurant though! All week we had eaten pretty forgettable food. Not that it was bad, just nothing to write home about and mostly alot of carbs.  So both of us were craving meat.  And we certainly managed that at Paacha-Konna. This was the Asado for two dish... but I think it could have fed 4-6.  Two huge chicken breast, two huge steaks, 6 chorizo sausages, and a ton of potatos and rice.  No fancy sauces, just perfectly grilled goodness. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it!  Anywho, we didn't manage to finish it all, but we did bring some chicken and steak back to the lodge for Simona.  She was one happy kitty cat, and we were happy to spoil her!

Beer, meat, potatos, and rice... yes please always!

So, one of my major goals for the desert trip was to take a cool photo of the stars, and appreciate them. Atacama, as one of the driest places in the world, is a great place for star viewing, and there are many large observatories in the atacama desert.  We failed though because the night we arrived was a full moon!  Great for when you have to get home and it's dark, but not great for star viewing.  On Saturday morning I did have some time and tried to take some neat night sky photos before the transfer came.  There were many failed attempts, but I really liked the photo below.  It looks like a photo and painting all at the same time! I may not have appreciated the stars as much as I meant to, but I still think the trip was perfect!

Chao!