DAY 2
Got woken up at 4am by Alfredo and got ready, had coffee and set off at 5am as apparently we had a big day with loads to see. It was dark for a bit but great driving on the windy bumpy hilly roads in the dark. As the sun started to come up we reached an old abandoned inca gold mining town. It was quite eerie but also beautiful to see it at that time of day. We carried on to a couple more small towns, the sunrise over the snow capped mountains was breathtaking.
We carried on over quite rugged terrane crossing fields, winding our way around mountains and crossing streams to a lookout over Lake morejon. The lookout was at 4855 meters above sea level. Alfredo explained the different minerals that make up the lakes which is the reasons why they have different colours. As the sun was coming up Pete noticed that the sun had an aura around it which looked like a circular rainbow. As the sun rose higher the aura got larger and more vivid. Rosa who is studying to become a geography teacher at the moment said that this happens very rarely and a whole lot of conditions need to be met in order for it to happen, so we felt very lucky to see something so beautiful and so rare. We managed to get a great photo of it (which I will put up on FB once we get to a place with better Internet speed).
We drove through to the national park entrance and through a couple of villages. There really isn’t much around. Alfredo said that the villagers pretty much survive on llama meat. We stopped and took some photo of the llamas in a paddock at one of the village. We got some great pics, they really are funny looking creatures, they all seem to have quite distinctive faces and come in a range of colours and sizes. They also seem to struggle to run, it’s as though they are not quite sure which legs to use – it is quite funny to watch.
After the towns we drove along a beautiful stretch with jagged mountains and deep canyons. We crossed a big swamp area and stopped to take some photos. The mossy plants were a brilliant bright green colour and contrasted well against the multitude of colours that the surrounding rocks presented. It felt like a little Eden amongst the arid landscapes.
Lake hedionda sur was our first proper lake stop. The lake sits on a vast range of differing minerals as are all the lakes. The minerals gave this lake a beige colour and it was like a mirror. The water was very still and produced the most amazing reflections of the mountains and snow peaked volcanoes. It was our first look at the flamingos too. There was quite a flock of them. They seemed to struggle to fly in the high altitude but when they got going it was a real sight as they only flew about a meter above the water giving off the inverse of themselves in the reflection.
We then drove on to Lake Kolpa, named after the predominating mineral Kolpa. Alfredo explained that the Kolpa is used in hair washing products and as with most of the minerals, they are exported to Chile. Irma got her plastic bag out and proceeded to collect the white powdery stuff (apparently she makes her own shampoo).
We drove over Salar de Chalviri – It wasn’t much to speak of other than the fact that we drove over it and the mountains that seemed a hop skip and a jump away took about 45 minutes to get to, the distances are very deceptive.
We then went to “Desert of Dali”. It is a valley with nothing but sand as far as the eye can see at the foot of an inactive volcano. The only features are a set of large misshapen rocks randomly scattered on the hillside. This “forest of stones” is due to the volcano erupting thousands of years ago and splaying these huge lava stone formations and rocks across the landscape. You can understand the name of the area as it felt very surreal.
We drove past Lake Blanca and got our usual speech… “it has got borax, sulphur, lithium, . . . ” in Spanish of course. Our next stop was Lake Verde – it was a brilliant turquoise colour which was simply stunning. Only problem was the brilliant turquoise colour is born from the high levels of arsenic and magnesium in the area. Alfredo did not want us to hang around too long as he was concerned for our health, nice!
After the lakes we stopped off at Rio Amargo hot springs for a quick dip and some lunch. The sulphur did smell a tad like rotten eggs! Rose and i decided not to swim but the boys did. Irma made some lovely meals, the only problem was that we did not see any refrigeration or coolers in the car and we kept being fed meat! (I didn’t eat the meat but the guys did and all seemed fine).
With our bellies full of food we headed up to “geothermic land” to geyser Sol de Mañana which sits at 5000 meters above see level. The area consists of very smelly steam vents frantically escaping out of the ground and many multicoloured bubbling mud pots. As you can imagine, the place felt quite other worldly. It was great fun watching the mud spew into the air. Irma came with us. She is a very cute tooth deprived granny with the most infectious laugh. She was running around like a shoolgirl pointing and giggling much to our amusement. The altitude started getting to Pete, giving him a cracking headache. We left and after dropping about a thousand meters and chewing on some coca leaves all was well again.
The last stop for the day and also our stop for the second night was Lake Colorada. We dropped our kit off at a very cute and simple dwelling in a village called Huaylljara which sits at 4340 meters and left irma to crack on with the cooking. Alfredo drove us the 30 mins or so to the lake – where do I begin, it is home to 600 000 flamingos, in a valley surrounded by multi-coloured mountains and snow capped volcanoes, has brilliant white borax minerals built up like mini icebergs all around, has yellow islands of sulphur and to top it off, the water is a deep pink due to some type of algae. There’s not much else to say, just try to picture it!
We made our way back to the accommodation scratching our heads, thinking we had perhaps been spiked with some South American halluciogenen after the sights we had just seen. As per usual, we had our coffee and biscuites waiting for us and a couple of hours later a hearty meal prepared by Irma. We shared one of the bottles of wine that we had bought in Mendoza a few days earlier. Alcohol at 4300 meters gives you quite a kick. After a very long and eventful day we passed out at about 9:30pm to build up some reserves for the next onslaught of visual overloads.
dawnaroundtheworld 
Leave a comment