Space enough....

San Juan de Atacama

It must have been the altitude sickness, but I don't remember a thing about our first night in the Atacama. The second night I probably felt better, because I remember much more... and I took (some bad) pictures.

When you see a churchyard you know people are nearby. Next we passed a railway line....

It still looks like we are in the middle of nowhere. And yes of course we are.

 The tracks go on forever.

A herd of lama's or alpaca's. 

The washing has been done and dries quickly in the breeze.

 One doesn't need poles.... just plant a cactus.

Everything is muddy coloured. The adobe houses, the streets.

Adobe bricks are drying on the window sill.

Beautiful old busses turn up everywhere in Bolivia.

 And this is the pond near our hostel. Somebody (the guide of the other group) is having a quiet smoke.

We arrived at our hostel. Unpacking the suitcases...

And yes, we have a real Salt Hotel. This is the dining room of our salt hotel. 

The kitchen is behind the curtain. 

Salt hotel.

 The salt beds in our bedroom. Windos only open to the corridor. 

The worst problem is the cold.

This is the corridor. It was very dark and probably I was a bit shacky, so the picture is "soft focus". 

Most of the time there was (very cold) water.

The same corridor, but looking to the other side.

catus

 A poole. Hard as wood. It is a cactus.

The salt hotel in San Juan de Atacama.

Next day the sun is shining! 

Suddenly we saw some children going past. And then coming back with milk and bread.

Finally, with all the luggage packed again, we are ready to go on to the salar!

The Atacama desert (part 2)

I know I am repeating myself, but the scenery in the Atacama desert is overwhelming. 

Luxurious green velvet mosses on rock formations

After spending the night in a place that I don't remember at all, but for the extreme cold and altitude misery, we packed the four wheel drives again to go further through the Atacama in the direction of the Salar de Uyuni. We saw many impressive rock formations, old lava fields, volcanoes. A landscape we will never forget.

Rocks in the middle of nowhere.

A window with a view....

More rocks and volcanic fumes in the distance.

Endless roads

Lava fields and volcanoes

Basalt pillars

This rock is cut through right in the middle.

It looks like sphinxes

Magnificent scenery.

There are rivers there....

....but most of the time there aren't.

A stone tree

And this is the stone eagle.

Slices of rock

More formations

Great volcanoes.

The end of the day.... almost a fata morgana.

The Atacama desert (part 1)

 The first lake was an ice lake. Just a few open places where birds could swim. Because it was sunny again it was nice to be outside. The altitude made some of us (me included) feel terrible. The next weeks we would stay up ( 4000 meters). It took a long time before I got a bit used. This combined with the extreme cold at night and the normal kind of cold in the daytime (hotels / hostels were not heated) was exhausting.

 It was a pity we couldn't see the tops of the volcanos. But apart from that the scenery was again stunning.

 Further down, next to the icy lake was the green lake - Laguna Verde. Green because among other minerals it contains arsenic. The mountain is again the Licancabur.

Endless dirt roads and majestic scenery.

We passed the Salvador Dali desert, but any surrealism was to far away. There would be more surrealist structures the next day.

After some driving we came across a lake with thermal pools. Some people went in. But as we were dressed against the cold (many layers) and we felt every movement because of the altitude.....  No, not many were tempted.

 At this stop (lunch) the drivers went straight away under their cars as to fix something. At first we thought something was wrong with the cars.... No, this was what they did during the whole trip through the desert just to keep their very old cars going. You get used to it easily. 

Next stop: Steam and the smell of sulfur. Vents to active volcanic layers. 

Then there was this fine fault-line. 

We were nearing the red lake - Laguna Colorada. The cars were parked at a distance. I was so tired and the wind had such force that I could hardly stand. Walking along the lakeside was a torment.

The color of the lake is caused by algae that turn red under influence of sunlight. Because the sun had disappeared again the red color was not as red as it should.  

But... we saw lots of flamingo's (at reather a distance).

Mountains with a thin layer of snow, the colors of land and water, the flamingo's....  a poetical landscape.

After this stop we went to our hostel. Somehow I hardly remember anything of what happened that evening / night. The brain was not working anymore. Altitude sickness.