The South American Odyssey

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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Top of the canyon at end of salt cave
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
The climb out of the cave was a steep climb to the top of the canyon. It was quite windy there. Top was about 20-25 mts above the cave exit.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Climb down from canyon top
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
There is a path at the top of the salt cave canyon all the way to the front and then down near the entrance. There were some very beautiful clay and salt formations here.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Tres Marias
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
After the salt cave, we went to the end of the Moon Valley to the rock formations called the Tres Marias. The head of one of the Marias has broken over time due to a tourist trying to climb it. The rest of the 2 are in good condition and now there is a barrier preventing people to approach the structure. Just next to the Tres Marias, is a rock formation that looks like the mouth of a dinosaur.En savoir plus
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The amphitheater
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
After Tres Marias, we were dropped off at the amphitheater formation. From here we walked to the lunar landscape. At the base of the amphitheater is the monk formation as well.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Lunar landscape Moon Valley
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
From the amphitheater, we walked to the lunar landscape. This area is the reason for the valley to be called moon valley. On one side were huge sand dunes and the other side a depression with clay formations covered with salt. In the lunar landscape one can also see the kissing couple formation.En savoir plus
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Duna Mayor
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
The next stop on the tour was the Duna Mayor. It is a huge sand dune next to the lunar landscape. There is a path around the dune where one can climb to the top of the dune. The play of the shadows of the setting sun on the layers of the dunes was picture postcard perfect.En savoir plus
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Views from Duna Mayor
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
From the top of the Duna Mayor, the views were fantastic. On one side, we could see the depression forming the lunar landscape. In the middle was the road cutting across the moon valley and on the left were the dunes.En savoir plus
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Sunset over the Moon Valley
2 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
After the Duna Mayor, the tour proceeded to the Moon Valley viewpoint to see the sunset. We reached the spot by around 7:45 pm. The sun was still a bit above the horizon but the moon on the opposite side was up amd right next to the Lincacabur volcano. It was a fantastic view with the volcano looking golden in the setting sun's hues. The whole of the Moon Valley was visible from our vantage position and as the sun started going down, we saw different colors on the valley surface. From golden in the early stages to yellow and then orange and then light violet as the sun set. It was fabulous. As soon as the sun set around 8 pm, it became quite cold and windy. We all packed into our buses and were back in San Pedro de Atacama by 8:30 pm.En savoir plus
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Off to Salar de Tara
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
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.En savoir plus
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Salar de Tara
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
Our first stop in the Salar de Tara was at Monjes de la Pacana (Pacana Monks). Its a stone formation in the middle of the desert that looks like monks in their habits. Nearby is the obelisk formation. It is about 20-25 mts tall. We stopped there for a few minutes. It was quite cold and windy. We were slightly higher and we could see the Laguna Aguas Calientes below. The name of the lake literally means hot water but according to our guide, it is so cold here that any hot water coming out cools very quickly so there is no hot water in the lake.En savoir plus
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Off to the Cathedral formation
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
From the first stop, we drove deeper into the Salar de Tara. The drive was on flat desert plains. The land was quite soft in some places and could have been dangerous for inexperienced drivers that are not familiar with the place. There were some strange stone formations caused due to weathering.En savoir plus
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The Cathedral formation
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
After driving for about 1 hour, we reached the cathedral formation quite near the Salar de Tara Laguna. Its a mesa formation with a flat top. We drove a few metres further to the viewpoint of the Salar de Tara.En savoir plus
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Salar de Tara viewpoint
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
The views of the Salar de Tara from the viewpoint were stunning. There were stone formations on one side in yellow color, in red on the other side and tge salt lake in the depression in front. This was one of the more beautiful sights we saw around San Pedro de Atacama. It is surprising very few people come here.En savoir plus
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Down to the valley
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
From the viewpoint, we drove down into the valley along a dirt road. There were strange stome formations on the way.
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Multi color organic fossil stones
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
Below in the valkey, we reached some very strange rock formations with white and yellow colors. They didn't taste like salt nor did we smell sulphur so we were puzzled at what could be the origin of this strange colors and formations.
The guide told us that this was one huge base rock below an ancient lake that had plants and weeds or maybe marshland on the edge of the lake. Over millions of years, the lake eroded the rock into multiple small formations and the plant and organic matter fossilized between the layers giving it the yellow and orange colors. The movement of the land caused the water to be at different levels for many years. These are visible as horizontal lines at the same level on all the rocks.En savoir plus
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Organic fossil rocks
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
We spent about 10 min at these interesting formations before driving further to some more formations in the valley.
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Catedrales de Cenizas (Ash Cathedrals)
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
We then proceeded a bit further to the base of the viewpoint from where we had seen the Salar de Tara. Here too, we saw the yellow remains of organic fossil from the same lake that covered this region.

Just behind the yellow colored rock are the Catedrales de Cenizas (Ash Cathedrals), geological formations made up by the ash coming from Llaima Volcano. They formed thousands of years ago during an eruption, and after years of being eroded they have acquired circular spiral shapes.En savoir plus
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Aguas Calientes lake
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
From the cathedral formations, we drove over to the Aguas Calientes lake. It is also a salt lake with a lot of flamingos. At one corner of the lake, there is a lot of plant and algae growth due to a freshwater source below that makes the water in the lake less salty. This also encourages the growth of brine shrimps that in turn attracts a lot of flamingos.En savoir plus
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Obsidian stones
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
The way back to the entrance of the national park, passes through a flat desert landscape with lots of stones and pebbles strewn around. Our guide told us that one could find obsidian stones spread in the desert sand. Obsidian is a volcanic glass created as an extrusive igneous rock. Basically, the magma cools into a glass/rock form once it is outside of the crust to form obsidian.
We stopped for a while to search for obsidian rocks. They were spread all over and were very easy to find. These are used as black glass in jewelery. After stopping there for a while, we continued further out of the national park back towards San Pedro de Atacama.En savoir plus
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Andean Fox
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Jist outside of the national park, an Andean fox came right next to our van. We stopped to take some pictures of it. From here, there was a fantastic panoramic view of the Salar de Tara behind us.
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Salar de Pujsa
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
On the way back to San Pedro de Atacama, we stopped for a short while at Salar de Pujsa. The saline lake that forms the part of the salar looked jet blue in the afternoon sun. From here, we drove back to Atacama and were there by 4 pm.En savoir plus
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Lunch at San Pedro de Atacama
3 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C
We reached back in San Pedro de Atacama by about 4 pm. The lunch was included in our tour today so the guide took us to a nice restaurant in the town. The food was nice and we enjoyed conversing with our companionship since the morning. It was a lovely end to a great day.
We walked back from the restaurant to our hostel, but not before trying out some local flavors at the ice-cream shop. 😉😉En savoir plus
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Geysers del Tatio
4 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C
We had 2 tours planned for today. The first half of the day was for the Geyser del Tatio and in the afternoon was the Tour to Escondidas lakes.
Our pickup was at the hostel at about 4:30 am. We were up at 4 am and were ready before the van arrived. The eary departure was needed to be at the geyser field by 6:30 am since early morning, when the sun is rising, is the best time for the geysers to be active. It was still dark when we were picked up and most of us slept while on the way to the geysers.

El Tatio is a volcanic geyser field with over 90 active geyser-water pools, located at 4,321m above sea level, in the heart of the Andes Mountains 210km from San Pedro, high in the Altiplano. The drive from San Pedro takes about two hours. We reached there by about 6:45 am. It was extremely cold but not very windy. From the parking itself, we could see many places where the steam was rising from the hot water pools.
After purchasing the tickets for 10000 CLP per person, we drove in near the geyser fields.En savoir plus
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Hot pools at El Tatio
4 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
The whole surface was interspersed with hot pools and fumeroles bellowing out steam from below the surface. There were mud pots and hot springs everywhere. The rising steam with no breeze to blow it, created a spectacular view with the rising sun.En savoir plus
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The main geyser
4 décembre 2017, Chili ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
There are two main areas here, and you can see the water start to bubble out of the frozen surface of the earth as the sun’s rays warm it. There is a large geyser that shoots water some 4-5 meters in the air. It was here that we met some of our group mates from the previous day's tour.
The water in the pool would start bubbling and then explode a few times before becoming calm again for 6-7 minutes. By now, a steady breeze had started and it blew away the steam so the exploding water and the pool below was clearly visible.En savoir plus
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