Day 51, the Bolivian desert

On this second day of our tour, we woke up at the sol y luna hotel in San Juan, and had pancakes with fruit for breakfast.
We left around 7:30, and our first stop was somewhere in the middle of nowhere to look at the amazing mountain view. We drove further, over the Chilanian border to look at an active volcano (Ollagüe), where steam was coming out. Under it was a beautiful volcano rock formation that would not look misplaced in a Star trek episode.
Somewhere we went back over the border into Bolivia (we don't know exactly where, because there was no border).
The road was just a sandy dust road with holes and rocks, and it was very shaky 😊 We went on our way to the first of 4 lagoons, when we saw some vicuñas. They are a type of llama, but these are protected. If you kill one, you can go to prison for two years. They live in herds of up to 40 vicuñas, with only one male. Llamas and alpacas are eaten and bred for their wool, but vicuñas live in the wild. After the vicuñas we also saw some nandus, a kind of small ostrich, who were also really cute 😊
When we arrived we saw our first flamingos of this trip. There are three kinds of flamingos living in this area, with the andean flamingo being the biggest. The view was amazing! The mountains, the water (it had a bit of turqoise color), the sunny weather, and the pink flamingos were stunning! 😍
After a while we drove to another lagoon, where we also had lunch. At this lagoon were much more flamingos. They were everywhere! 🦩 different kinds together. They make funny noises. Some sound like geese 🪿
After lunch we stayed a little bit longer, because Luis (our guide) wanted someone else to look at the car, because he thinks something is wrong with one of the wheels. We didn't mind, because safety first and we could look at the flamingos some more 🤭
We went on our way again, through the desert sand, and passed beatiful mountains and landscapes, and came to a few rocks that looked funny. It was really windy here, and Luis told us the rocks were shaped by the wind and sand.
We went 'on the road' again (there is no road, it is just driving through the desert), and the next stop would be for a surprise animal. After half an hour we came at a funny rock formation, and saw some small furry animals sitting on and under the rocks. They were real life pikachu's! Viscacha's are family of chinchilla's and have a brown/grey/yellowish fur, with ears a bit like a bunny, and a long tail. They were very cute, but other tourists were feeding them, and that was very sad. We did not see a mango tree growing anywhere in this desert at 4400 meters, so we do not think that is on their menu. Maybe they can get sick! After the cuteness overload and to see all the animals in their natural habitat, we quickly went on our way again, and Luis was driving quite fast now. At some point he said we should close our eyes and open them when he said so. When we were there, and opened our eyes, we arrived at the next laguna at the national park! It was beautiful! There were so many colors, and the lake itself was red! It only turns red in the afternoon. This is the algae where the flamingos get their color from. We walked around a little and gazed at the scenery. And then we saw a swiss camper from Bern, and a VW transporter from Schwäbisch Hall on the parking lot 🤭🤑
We went further and higher across the bolivian mountain side. It remembered us also a bit to be on another planet, like mars, because the sand was a bit red here. After a while we dropped by at some geysers at an altitude of 4884m. (It was the highest altitude Nina had measured with the app) We could stay here only for max. 10min because of the 'schwefeldioxid', 'zwaveldioxide' (sorry, don't know the english word. The gasses that smell like farts that came out of the earth). You could hear and see the mud boiling. Like blubb sounds.🌋 It was very cold and smelly, so nina did not mind we were only there for 10 minutes, but Eike could definately explore some more! 😅
Our sleepingplace was only 20 minutes away, and it was at another lagoon, where there were also hot water springs. At the hostel it was still cold, eventhough it was 400 meters lower. The sun was going down and we had dinner. Spaghetti bolognese and wine from bolivia, the wine was fruity and delicious!🍷 After dinner we went out and looked at the stars. There were so many, we could not even find Orion so easily! The milkyway was super bright and beautiful. We didn't manage to make a picture, but Mali did, and send it to us. 🌌Thanks Mali!
We could use the hot springs all night if we wanted to, but we were too lazy. The springs were about 150 meters away, down. At 4400 meters the way up feels really like climbing a mountain. Instead we looked at the stars some more, and at the thunderstorms that were having a light show at the horizon ❤️ it looked like a war was going on🎇
The electricity in the hostel was going off at 22:00, so we went to our room that we share with Mark from the philipines, and went to sleep. There was no signal on our phones at all.Læs mere