March 24 Altiplano – lagoons, flamingo and village oases

 Today we were heading further into the highlands so I was quite excited. The pinnacle I think was a couple of lagoons - Miñique and Miscanti 4,300m above sea level. OMG!! Our guide was supposed to have oxygen tanks on board in case we needed it but we managed OK albeit a lot slower than normal – big understatement! On the way we stopped in the village of Toconao built around a little oasis of dammed waters from snow melt; we were hemmed by high mountains which included the 6000m high Licancabur Volcano. Magnificent. 

This delightful little village has an impressive bell tower (separate from the main church) dating from 1750.

We visited the church where Javier’s daughter was a student. She was delighted to see her dad and we got to look around this old church the ceiling of which is reeds and much of the internal structures and supports are cactus ‘wood’. Quite fascinating.

We visited the church where Javier’s daughter was a student. She was delighted to see her dad and we got to look around this old church the ceiling of which is reeds and much of the internal structures and supports are cactus ‘wood’. Quite fascinating.

This is one of hundreds!

After a brief visit to the small village, we climbed higher towards the Altoplano through the amazing Atacama salt plain stopping along the way at Chaxa Lagoon where we were overwhelmed at the beauty of the flamingos; we saw the Andean and Chilean species.  This was rather a doco experience walking out through unbelievable salt plains to get panoramic views of these stunning 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, the geological demarcations to this amazing Andean region but the ‘Altiplano’ (high plain), an area of inland drainage, spreads over four countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. Unsurprisingly its name comes from the fact that it is made up of very high altitude flat plateaus averaging over 3700m, which is slightly less than that of the Tibetan Plateau, but 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 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 lies the humid Amazon rainforest. As I said absolutely intriguing.

Speaks for itself

I got this photo to send to Andrew Harper from Australian Desert Expeditions (from our Simpson Desert walk 2022) as he had 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! There were lots of birds to see - it was breathtaking.

Laguna Miscanti 15 Km squared.

Laguna Minique

We had to get a selfie shot to send back to our wonderful GP

A vicuna 

These are called affectionately as the Princesses of the Andes. They can and do live at around 4-5000m whereas alpacas and llamas live around 3-4000m and guanacos are found lower at 1-3000m. Vicuna have the finest wool. They are adorable ad can move very swiftly ~60 Kph.

We were supposed to go to one of the villages for lunch but our marvellous guide, Javier, aware that I was mad 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 scavenging, he set out lovely picnic lunch for us . We dined al fresco like never before watched only by many towering peaks and volcanoes. A perfect day.