Volcanoes and lagoons!

Day two of our Perla de Bolivia tour.

Today we woke up at Ajencha feeling cosy and warm, under our many layers of blankets, and in the relatively warm room when you consider the outside temperature. We headed for breakfast at 6:30, so not too early, and enjoyed some strange but quite nice warm, puffed up, fried bread type pastries with dulche de leche or dark honey. Once again, quite impressed with this place.

We headed to the jeep and set off to the first location of the day. We were driving through not quite dry salt today and it was like a weird mix between snow and sand, pretty cool to drive on and the sunrise was awesome too, a lovely orange sky provided a backdrop to the mountains and volcanoes around us.

The first stop was a huge and flat desert of what was once a massive coral reef. The rocks were razor sharp, evidence of their origin as coral, and the place is nicknamed 'Valley of Soldiers' by locals because of the way the rocks all stand leaning the same way, like soldiers standing for duty. I imagine this is a result of the once present ocean currents, shaping the now skeletal reef. It's so incredible to think this place, now 4000m above sea level, was once part of the sea bed! We were commenting on how peaceful a place this was too, silence except for us, no birds, no traffic, no planes up ahead. It is also cold...very, very cold!Knowing the history too made it quite serene when you stopped to just take it in and you could just imagine the rocks long ago, full of colour with fishes swimming around them.

After a quick 'Inca Toilet' mission, trying not to get corsl scratches on your bum, we headed back to the jeep and moved on to the next stop. This time we got to over 4700m, to see the active Ollague Volcano that towered over the landscape. From the viewpoint, which includes lava formations and some very weird round, green plants, that look a bit like coral, you can see the steam and gases rising from the volcano into the sky. An awesome sight, especially as I have never seen an active volcano with smoke plumes before. Once again the beauty of the place is astounding.

From here we drove through more desert and rocky landscape, through the trail of the three lagoons - Cañapa, Hedionda and Chiarkhota. The scenery was, again, amazing and on route to the first lagoon there was real evidence of the once powerful volcanoes and their eruptions. Large rocks littered the area around the surrounding volcanoes, the slopes of which appeared sheered and peeled, from the power of the explosions that tore them apart. Further out from this were smaller rocks, red in colour instead of the grey and sandy colour of the others, and these looked much more like solidified molten lava. They were folded, as though cooled whilst moving and had a very different texture. Pretty spectacular and also a reminder of just how powerful this planet is. Oh, and not to forget that we also passsed wild lamas, vicunia and even an ostrich on the way! Andean ostriches...who knew!

At the first lagoon we were right on the edge of the water and the ground was a strange mix of the salt and ice and sand. You would sink in places that looked solid, not too deep, but it was weird in texture...a bit like ash. The contrast of the water, against the volcanoes behind the lagoon was stark. The colours of the lakes and surrounding land were quite something too...whites, reds, sandy yellows and greens. Oh, and to top it all off, there were flamingos!!!! So close too and feeding in the water. Bolivia stuns us again.

At the second lagoon, we stopped and climbed atop a large rock for a view of the whole lagoon. It is tiring work getting up these normally not so steep ledges, but it was worth it. What a view. A glorious lagoon in the middle of desert landscape and once again...flamingos! So strange seeing them in this landscape when you normally imagine them in the tropics.

We headed next to a place called the Desert of Siloli, where there is 'the tree of rock' amongst other cool rock formations that project out of the sand dunes. In all honesty, it was more the landscape around the rocks that made this for me. The formations were pretty awesome, but Brimham Rocks in England has a more impressive selection I think. As I said though, awesome landscape and a bit surreal in the sense that these rocks do seem to have just appeared there, dotted about so randomly. They were also fun for a bit of climbing.

Here we thought we would make use of some 'proper' toilets too...wow. Did not realise that a toilet could smell quite so bad. Opened the door and immediately walked away. Absolutely no way. Inca style (outdoor) would be luxury in comparison.

We jumped back in the jeep instead, which provided nice shelter from the crazy wind that was blasting our faces. So glad to have a buff scarf!

Next stop was the the third lagoon on this trail, where we also stopped for lunch. There were two volcanoes either side of the lagoon, which was really long. The perspective though is so hard to jusdge here. You look and think you could probanly run over to the volcanos edge, and then you see a Jeep on the other side of the lagoon that looks the size of an ant, and realise it would probably take a day. So crazy! Lunch was some delicious chicken with veg and pasta, which went down a treat. Another great spot for a picnic! Don't think future picnics will ever quite live up to these ones, but we can try!

Next up was the national reserve and the Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon). We got our tickets and stamped our passports (oh, and I had my first experience of a self pour toilet flush...yay! Seriously excited for a normal flush and to put toilet paper down the loo again...it's the little things) and then carried on to the lagoon.

This was so impressive. A huge red lagoon, once again with a backdrop of volcanoes. Driving towards it you couldn't help but stare out of the window, and then we parked up to walk alongside the lagoon. There were so many flamingos here and they were very pink from the red algae, part of the reason for the lagoons colour.

The ground beside the lagoon was a mix of wet salt and some plant life. Not sure we were supposed to walk on it but our guide took us this way. We noticed other people staying off it later and so me and Rob decided to move off it just in case, we dont want to ruin the local wildlife! It was really amazing though to be so close to the flamingos and to see such an interesting looking lagoon with so much colour. There were the small white, borax salt 'islands', streaking through the lagoon, the greens of the plants, the reds of the algae ridden water, the yellows of the mountains and then the blue of the sky. So beautiful. There were lamas too, with bright fabrics tied round their ears, drinking by the waters edge. So many people wanting that lama selfie, but the lamas were not so keen!

We stayed here a little while, it was really cold and the walk back up to the car was uphill and tiring, but we got yet another awesome view from this new vantage point. Richard also stubbled across a lama carcass...nice.

This was the last stop of the day before heading to our accommodation, which was just up the road. We were told it would be basic and boy were they right.Read more