We woke up this morning (20th August) in Huaylla Jara with ice on the inside of the window. Luckily it seems that a fleece lined sleeping bag plus 3 blankets is just enough to keep warm at 4600m when there's no heating! Last night the outside temperature was -20C!
After changing extraordinarily quickly we had breakfast which was a real treat: our guide had cooked us some delicious pancakes! We ate them quickly before they got cold and then were on our way.
The building techniques in Bolivia are quite interesting (as I already mentioned in one of my La Paz posts!).
Out here they use rocks to hold the roof down and our hostel last night was no exception! No wonder it was cold. At least there was glass in the windows!
Our first stop after breakfast was Laguna Colorado again (altitude is 4300m). This morning it was mostly frozen and the red colour wasn't showing as clearly as yesterday. The flamingos (and terns) had more sense than to stand in an icy cold lake, they instead chose to stand around the edge where the incoming water from an underground volcanic vent was warm and steaming.
We were told that we had plenty of time today for pictures and Stu and I could have spent several hours here just watching the steaming water, flamingos, terns, small birds (like a finch) and the reflections. We spent so long (my nose got so cold I couldn't feel it!) that our guide had to call us to tell us it was time to go. Our guide and driver had slightly more sense and had enjoyed the view from the warm jeep!
We quickly scrambled, breathlessly, up the side of the hill back to the jeep and set off to our next destination.
The Desierto Siloli has a famous stone called the Árbol de Piedra or the Stone Tree. It's an odd shaped rock which has a hard, heavyiron heavy top and soft lower half meaning the bottom has been eroded by the wind more heavily creating a tree like structure.
There were several other interesting rock formations. Stu's favorite was one he called "The Slug" and I liked the one that looked like a worm just coming out of the ground. Even though there were lots of really interesting rock formations only the Stone Tree is protected and you can touch and climb all over the other rock formations. The stone tree is the most photographed rock formation in Siloli and it's predicted that it will be irreparably eroded within the next 5 years which perhaps explains why the Bolivian government is trying to protect it as much as possible.
Looking in the opposite direction to the rock formations was a beautiful mountain range. I sat in the car as we drove along with my gazed fixed on the mountain range. The colours were extraordinary and the best was yet to come; one of the peaks had 7 different colors due to the mineral content.
Okay enough about mountains. A camera can't really capture the scale and colours so you'll just have to come and see them for yourself! Further on were 5 lakes, each rimmed with naturally occurring borax. These lakes are a favourite spot for flamingos.
Due to the lakes having not melted yet (they are only 50cm deep!) the flamingos were close to the edge meaning we could see them close up (and take lots of photos!).
For lunch we stopped where there was the highest population of flamingos at Laguna Hedionda. Stu and I spent more than half an hour just gazing at them. Three different species come here to feed and we could now finally get close enough to see their knees and beaks to be able to tell them apart!
At the final lake we were in for another treat, a herd of vercuñas were grazing and relaxing at the shore line. We were able to get within 10m of the herd getting a good look at the babies which were lying down snoozing. As we got back into the jeep we saw an Andean Fox running off, a rate sight we're told!
After lunch we got as close as we could to another active volcano that is on the Bolivian-Chilean border, Ollague. We could tell that we were close as for the first time we saw clouds on the sky and the volcano is predicted to erupt within the next 10 years! The last eruption was over 3000 years ago and the next one is predicted to be a super eruption; the volcano is growing in height by 1cm per year!
In front of the volcano is a large lava field which we climbed up and over to get a better view.
As we started back to the jeep a huge (to us) dust devil started up in the distance and came directly for us! Exciting! Fortunately it changed course and just went over our jeep instead :-)
Next we crossed another small salt flat, Chiguana, which only had a couple of centimetres of usable salt.
After the salt flats is the town of San Juan. Around a 1000 people live here and in the rainy season (Jan/Feb) the town is completely cut off from the rest of Bolivia as the salt flats to the south, Chiguana, and the north, Unuyi are flooded. They therefore have to stock up every year to last the full two months alone. They can however cross over the border to Chile on foot (1.5 hrs) where there is a monthly market.
Perhaps more interestingly though is that San Juan used to be under the sea and here ancient coral is littered everywhere and its the building material of choice for the houses and tombs.
800 years ago the inhabitants used the giant coral structures as tombs, carving out the inside and placing mummified bodies inside with belongings to help them in their next life. Unfortunately the Spanish found these tombs and took almost all of the gold and silver (one silver brooch remains!), melting it all down :-(
Shortly after leaving San Juan we entered the Salar de Uyuni. The Uyuni salt flats are the largest in the world with an area of more than 12,100 sq km. However we weren't going to see much of the flats today as our aim was to get to Isla Incahuasi, a coral island full of giant cacti, before sunset.
About 30 mins before sunset we arrived at the island and started to ascend it to settle down and watch the sunset. Tonight was the first night we saw any clouds which made the colors even more vibrant. However the sunset was nothing compared to the moonrise. Tonight it was a huge full bright moon that looked golden as the sun set. Normally the island is overrun with tourists but tonight we had the entire island to ourselves making it a really magical evening.
Once the sun had fully disappeared and we were able to take our eyes off the moon we started to descend the coral mound. On our way down we saw several chinchillas who also must have been moongazing whilst preening themselves.
Finally we made it back to the jeep (chinchillas and a beautiful moon, what more can you ask for?) and set off for our hotel, one of the salt hotels on the north shore of the salt flat.
Unfortunately it was now almost dark and compasses don't work on the salt flats (because of iron deposits in the salt) so drivers have to navigate by landmarks which isn't much help if you can't see them! Fortunately the moon was so bright it was causing shadows and the remaining rays of sunlight meant we were able to make it safely off the salt flats.
The salt hotel was interesting but not as exciting as we hoped. It looked just like any other building except instead of the bricks being made of mud (like last night) they were made of salt. The chairs and tables in the restaurant were made of salt which was interesting but quite uncomfortable and unfortunately Stu is still determined to visit an ice hotel :-(
The bed in the room had a salt base which was surprisingly comfortable and we even had heating (and tepid water) in this hotel!
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