Today we were venturing further into the highlands so I was quite excited. Our excellent driver and guide was Javier. The highlight of the day for me was a couple of lagoons - Miñique and Miscanti 4,300m above sea level. Staggering - literally!! Our guide was supposed to have oxygen available in case we needed it but we managed OK albeit considerably slower than normal. On the way we stopped in the village of Toconao built around a little oasis of dammed waters from snow melt. We were hemmed in by high mountains which included the 6000m high Licancabur Volcano. Absolutely magnificent.
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| An imposing bell tower (separate from the main church) dating back to 1750. |
We visited the church where Javier’s daughter was a student. She was very excited to see her dad and we got to look around this old church the ceiling of which is made of reeds and much of the internal structures and supports are made from cactus ‘wood’. Quite fascinating.
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| Magnificent flamingos - the first of the hundreds we were to see. |
After our brief visit to Toconao, we climbed higher towards the Altiplano (High Plain) through the amazing Atacama salt plain stopping along the way at Chaxa Lagoon where we were blown away by the beauty of the flamingos. We saw both the Andean and Chilean species. It was rather a National Geographic experience walking out through an otherworldly panorama of salt to stand mesmerised by these magnificent birds.
We tore ourselves, or rather Javier gently coaxed us away to get back on the road to the Altiplano. I’m not sure I really understand the geography, what forms the geological demarcations in this amazing Andean region but the Altiplano, an area of inland drainage, spreads over four countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. Unsurprisingly, its name derives from the fact that it is made up of a very high-altitude flat plateaus averaging over 3700m, which is slightly less than that of the Tibetan Plateau. This high plateau is dominated by the massive active volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone. Much of it is in Bolivia - where we were heading tomorrow, hooray! but here we were still in Chile. It’s a diverse and intriguing area with the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on the planet, to the southwest of the Altiplano and to the east the humid Amazon rainforest. As I said - absolutely intriguing.
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| Speaks for itself |
I had this photo taken to send to Andrew Harper OAM from Australian Desert Expeditions, leader of our Simpson Desert walk 2022, because he had shown us photos of him right here when we walked across South America some years ago along the Tropic of Capricorn.
Eventually we arrived onto the high plateau where we were to visit two tranquil lakes cradled by towering peaks - one even had a flamingo foraging in it. We managed to walk a km or so at 4300m - fingertips and lips were tingling a bit but we did it. It was breathtaking - literally!
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| Laguna Miscanti 15 square Km |
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| Laguna Minique |
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| We had to get a selfie to send back to our wonderful GP |
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| A vicuna |
Vicuna are affectionately called the Princesses of the Andes. These sweet gazelle-like animals are adorable and can move very swiftly ~60 Kph.They have the finest wool of the camelids and can, and do, live at around 4-5000m whereas alpacas and llamas live around 3-4000m and guanacos are found lower at 1-3000m.
We were supposed to go to one of the villages for lunch but our marvellous guide, Javier, aware that I was very keen on plants, stopped in the middle of nowhere where there were lots of desert vegetation so I could go exploring. While I was off poking around, he set out a lovely picnic lunch for us . We dined al fresco like never before watched over by towering peaks and volcanoes. A perfect day.
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