Monday, February 12th, 2018

Today we rescheduled the visit of the Geyser del Tatio Tour (because they said after nightly rain it will not be accessible) and The half day private City Tour through San Pedro to a full day tour to the Altiplanicos, Salt flats, Laguna chaxa and the flamingos, Lagunas miscanti y miniques and toconao. Laguna Cejar will definitely be closed, due to heavy road damages.

We have breakfast. The breakfast in Hotel Poblado Kimal is the best Latin American service we had so far. Whatever you ask the lady, she has got a solution which is reality within minutes. They have fresh pineapple, watermelon juice, cut avocados, serve eggs, all there …

Hmmm avocado and soft eggs.

We are ready for the bus 30 min early (you never know with TurisTour), 15 min before the time the same rotten bus as yesterday picks us up in front of the hotel. The bus is full. We drive south in direction Atacama desert.

It starts with a drive between the volcanoes of the Andes to the left, and the Atacama desert to the right. Behind the Atacama desert you could see the a hilly range (the Cordillera de Sayar) which limits the salt flats and keeps away the rainclouds from the other side.

As we drove in the desert a washout causes some confusion. But the busdriver took a deep breath and drove through. I am sure the bus has seen worse in his long life so far.

And we drive on to the first stop. The Flamengos in the salty lagoons.

The special (pink) Krill is the reason why the Flamengos come and feed here:

Then we drove on to the lagunas. Up we go:

The Lagunas Miscanti y Miniques

There is three stops. Two are parking lots where all the tourists stop (it is not a lot of people but still some small busses). One stop is with a toilet (as always huge queue at the ladies) and an optional small walk (1 km). Anyway you never can go ashore one of the lakes.

No Llamas, Guanakos instead (wild living, above 3.500m only). At the end we visited desert town Toconao. There we try the “famaous icecream” made out of some endemic plant here. Nothing special. It is super super hot and dry. The church (the most interesting sight in the town) is closed, of course. So we get a wonderful pink fridge magnet and leave.

We come home, have a shower, walk through San Pedro. It looks like rain again. We have dinner on the main square …