Isla Incahuasi

On our way out to the island our driver spotted something off in the distance and we headed towards it. Turns out it was a big maze being built from salt blocks that only a few weeks ago didn't exist. The speed to cut the bricks up and pile them together in such a shape was fascinating to me.

Incahuasi island is one of sixteen islands in this giant salt flat. Our job was too climb to the top, but at an altitude of over 3600m, that is still a challenge.

This island has a striking feature the moment you near it. It is covered in a forest of giant cacti. This cacti is Cardon Grande, and some of them are hundreds of years old because they only grow a few centimetres every year. This cacti only grows on this island in this region.

The Inca would come to this island for the animals, like the llama, which liked to come here at different times. The Inca would walk 8+ plus hours from the main volcano in the area Thunupa where they lived.

This island other incredible feature is it is made from huge fossilized coral. You'd never think this area was once covered with water and coral. But here it was, in the ground we stepped on for stairs, in the fences guiding us, and the hand rails to hold us.

On the way back was a little archway and cave to pass through.En savoir plus