Altiplano

 We were driving for 2 hours  from the beach up the sandy hills through the desert and suddenly the scenery changes to this colorful mountain terrain.

 A small, local village close to Putre.

 The edge of Purtre, the town we were staying in at an altitude of 3500m. The white cabins at the right edge of the picture were our home for a few days.

 The Chakana Mountain Lodge keeps Alpacas as pets.You sheer them once a year and the 6 Alpacas give about 6 kg of wool.

You can feed the Alpacas grass, chips and fruit. The white male guy has an attitude and tries to eat other Alpaca's food. My mom tried to teach him...but of course he wouldn't listen. If you try to skip him with the food, he simply spits at you.

In return, Semu just spat back at one point.

The little Alpacas are super cute.

 One of the cabañas we stayed in. The color of the mountains surrounding the area turned deep red at sunset.

 The next morning we drove up to the nearby Parque National Lauca. The ice crystals on the grass that morning show how cold it gets here during the night. The Park is at an altitude of about 4500 meters above sea level.

Vicuñas

 This cute little guy is called "Hasenmaus", a "bunny mouse".

They are just adorable and hop around pretty fast.

Alpacas

 Cute little baby Alpaca

 Pretty dressed up Alpaca ladies : )

 You can see Volcan Parinacota everywhere. It's perfectly cone shaped and 6432 meters tall. The volcano is at the boarder between Chile and Bolivia. According to the map, the crater is claimed by Bolivia.

 A typical white, adobe church in the small village of Parinacota.

Semu and my mom exhausted after a short hike. The altitude was taking our breath away, it's crazy how much you notice it. Luckily Semu was prepared and had a bunch of coca leaves in his pocked for us to chew on. They really seem to help prevent a headache and other altitude problems.

 This moss plant is as hard as wood and over 200 years old. We saw it on our short hike.

After the day in a high altitude environment we definitely deserved to relax in the "termas" (natural hot sporings) on the way back to Putre. A house in Putre is painted with a scene in the "termas".

 On our third day we went for a real hike into the canyon. The trail head started from our lodge which is only 3500 meters above sea level. We seem to have adjusted really well to the altitude over the past two days. On our first day in Putre, we were already dead tired after just walking down and up the very first little stretch of this treck. This time we surprised ourselves by hiking all the way to the end. It took us a little under two hours to get there and quite a bit over two hours the get back up the hill. Where are those coca leaves???

 The trail went through a narrow cave and along super steep mountain sides. A very beautiful and adventures trail.

To some ancient wall paintings. Too bad people don't show any respect anymore and just take a piece of the painted wall.

 We really liked the Putre-Lauca area of the Altiplano a lot.