Off to Salar de Tara

We were up by 7:30 am and ready by 8 am for our pick up for the Salar de Tara tour.

Located at 4,300m, and 100 km from San Pedro de Atacama, this is a high-altitude Altiplano lake with a surface area covering 48km2.

On the way, we skirted the Lincacabur volcano on the border of Chile and Bolivia. A short distance from there, we could see the Laguna Verde (Green Lake) amd Laguna Blanca (White Lake) inside Bolivia. We had been there just about 2 months ago. It was thrilling to see the view from the other side and from a slightly higher elevation so we could see the dirt tracks we had been driving on.

The road is long, but well-paved, till the entrance to the most remote part of the Los Flamencos national reservation: Monjes de la Pacana (Pacana Monks). The place is well above 4,500m and it's not uncommon for people to get altitude-sickness. Since we had been living the last 2 months most of the time above 4000 mts and going down to sea level and then back to 5000 mts above sea level quite a few times, the body was used to the rarified air by now.

The highest point of the excursion is almost 4,900m above sea level.Read more