View over the the Atacama Desert from ancient hillside ruins close to "San Pedro de Atacama". The light at sunset turns all the far away mountains red and pink and makes the desert look really nice.
Our Chevy!!! Still very clean!!! My mom offered us the luxury of a car during her visit. Awesome!!! We really appreciated the independence.
The salt flat "Salar de Atacama".
A close up of the salt crystals.
Laguna Chaxa with flamingos on the Salar de Atacama.
Flamingos seem to prefer salty lakes.
Laguna Miscani was at an altitude of 4300 meters above sea level. Very crisp, clear, and dry. The colors were great. Can you see the white salt rim around the edge of the lake?
Lots of vicuñas on our way up to "El Tatio Geyser".
The volcano in the back has a sulfury, yellow hole that is smoking.
Hot Springs at "El Tatio Geyser". You gotta be careful where you step. It may be a very thin crust.
A bubbling and spitting hot spring in the geyser area.
The steam smelled a lot like sulfur. Puhhhhh.
We were on our way to some hot springs fairly close to San Pedro, the small town we stayed at. The hot springs are on the way to the more famous "El Tatio Geysers", which is best visited in the morning with a tour group. Since we don't like organized tours in large groups very much, and we had our own car, we just decided to keep driving past the hot springs and go all the way to the geysers on our own. We knew the road was in "malo" condition and you're supposed to have a 4x4 or a pick up...but the guy at the hot springs said we could make it up there. We started the 60 km drive up a steep hill, had fun looking at llamas, and kept driving and driving and driving through a pretty nice area. But the road also got really, really bumpy. Not rocky bumpy or pot hole bumpy, but at least 10 km of a never ending sandy ridges bumpy slow road. And Semu was doing an excellent job of driving! I'm amazed his arms didn't fall of after the trip and the car made it as well, without loosing any screws. It was worth it though, the smoking hot springs, little water fountains and fumarolos looked pretty cool, we got the whole site to ourselves and also were able to swim in the natural, geyser hot spring in privacy.
Valle de la Luna - Moon Valley
Sandy up-hill hike at an altitude of 2500 meters. Not too high, but we didn't last long.
You are so brave! And with a Chevrolet! I have a new-found respect for these cars... ahahah!
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