Drier and Higher in the Desert

Up and at it once again. I can sleep after my holidays. Today I had booked a full day tour to see the principle sights in the Atacama Desert. This desert is the driest (non-polar) desert in the world. Most of the desert is composed of stony terrain, salt lakes (salares) and sand. Yesterday I had so much sand in my shoes there was barely room for my toes - true story!

I received a message from the company informing travellers to dress warm because this tour was at altitude. Ok...warm-warm or Canadian dress warm??? There is a difference. I changed my wardrobe selection to something warmer but with layers. Cold? Pfft! It wasn't cold. I wish I had worn my shorts like I had originally planned. The warm hat, jacket, scarf and gloves they recommended, were not necessary for this die-hard Canadian.

The tour company - Pukarumi - picked me up last as my hotel was situated on the way out of town - and the adventure began! It's always fun to run into people that "you know" and meeting new ones along the way. Must keep those social skills tuned! A couple people from yesterday's tour were also on today's tour.

Our first stop was Chaxa Lagoon, which was the home of many flamingos. Unfortunately, not as many as there had been in the past due to lithium mining in the area and their usage of the water. Sad really.

We also stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn, which marks the most southerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon. It was pretty cool to be standing in that spot.

Next on our lists of stops was the Altiplanic Lagoons made up of Miscanti Lagoon and Miniques Lagoon - used to be all one big lagoon until volcano erupted and the lava separated the lagoons into two.

Our final stop was the Atacama Salt Flats and Piedras Rojas (Red Rocks). This area is an iconic and typical landscape with red colour in all the stones. We walked to the Salar de Aguas Calientes, which was a nice hike on a beautiful day. At this point we were just under 4000 metres in altitude. The walk was fairly flat but I could feel some affects of the elevation at the end of the hike heading back to the van. I was sucking wind for a bit. But nothing to worry about - all good! The viewpoints everywhere were incredible. Everywhere you looked was a different vantage point. Yes, I took a ton of pictures.

During the day we also had stops for breakfast and lunch, which were set up at a picture perfect location. I was not expecting the quantity of food they provided - so good! They even made scrambled eggs and fresh guacamole right there.

The wildlife did not disappoint either - foxes, llama-like guanacos, flamingos, ostrich-like birds (with a Spanish name I can't remember nor pronounce). When the driver spotted wildlife, he would slow down and pull over so we could see, but most of the time the animals were at different spots throughout the day. Amazing!

It was a long day but absolutely fantastic, with great people I met along the way. I can't believe my time in Chile is winding down.