A flamboyance of Flamingos

Today was our last day in the Atacama so we wanted to make the most of it. The second most popular thing to do was to visit Laguna Chaxa in the Salar Atacama/Atacama Salt Flats. The salt flats are a huge area 3000 km2 south of san Pedro where water that drains off the Andes has collected and then evaporates leaving mineral and salt deposits. The surface of these flats is not terribly smooth but rather rough and crusty. Laguna Chaxa is a shallow lake centrally in the salt flats which attracts 3 types of flamingos, the Chilean, the Andean and the Jacobean flamingo. They are attracted to the lake because of brine, tiny shrimp like the ones you got as a kid in the sea monkey set. The flamingos spend their days with their heads in the water filtering for these brin. I have seen flamingos before in the south of France years ago but they are such beautiful birds especially when they fly that it was fun to watch. We probably came as close as 20 metres from them.

Another interesting thing about the salt flats is they contain large quantities of Lithium which are mined on the westerly aspects of the salt flats away from the tourists. The mining has injected much needed money into Atacama and San Pedro but at the expense of lowering the water levels in the various lakes. They use water in the refining process. This has been at the expense of the flamingos and other wildlife and at the expense of farming.

It was noon by the time we had finished with the flamingos. We seem to have become better acclimitized to the heat, sun and altitude so we decided to drive up to Laguna Miscanti and Laguna Miñiques which are two lakes on a Andean Plato high above the salt flats at an elevation of 4400 metres. I really enjoyed the drive up to the entrance into the lakes as one was afforded spectacular views of the mountains which are different from our Rocky's as they are volcanic. One of the volcanoes in the area had erupted as recently as 1993. No volcanic activity was seen today. We also enjoyed it as the temperature fell from 30 degrees on the salt flats to 14 degrees which is our type of weather. The drive from the highway into the lakes was a little spine battering in our little white Hyundai hatchback as the roads hadn't been graded and had a washboard like consistency. We had a very slow drive up to the lakes. The lakes had a beautiful blue color and were set beneath volcanic mountains. It was pretty but not spectacular. It would have been more enjoyable if the road had been in better shape.

On the way back to San Pedro we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. We had crossed it earlier in the day on another road but it hadn't been marked. We stopped for the obligatory Instagram photo.

This was our longest day yet as we left at 8:30 and returned at 4:30. We stopped at the French bakery in town and bought a loaf of freshly made bread to make our sandwiches for supper.

PS. A group of flamingos is known as a flamboyanceBaca lagi