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.

Iquique

 The coastal road coming from the south to Iquique's got some extra steep hills. Better watch out for falling camiones.

 The plaza and pedestrian zone in the city center are newly renovated and look pretty neat. They restored the wooden side walk as well, which is special I guess.

 Tide pools right out front of our awesome ocean view cabañas.

 Star fish and other life in the tide pool.

 Some bright red beak birds in front of Semu's surf spot. I only took videos of him surfing and no photo. We'll post some in our next blog entry from Arica.

Iquique from above, going north. It's a big city streched along the coast, squeezed in between huge sand dunes and the ocean.

 Coffee on a real coffee table. Not Nescafe for a change.

Turtle sandwiche for lunch?

 A very brave mom trying "una mescla de mariscos" in the fish market down town. And she really liked it!!!

Sunset walk at one of the long beaches in Iquique.

Atacama Desert

 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.

HEY!