Geology Galore

Today (17th August) we visited the sites around Tupiza. As we got in really early this morning we delayed our start to until 11am.

As we got up late we had missed breakfast so went a few doors down. Stu had quinoa porridge again and I had banana and chocolate crepes. Mouthwateringly good (literally - I dribbled down my front when it arrived!).

Our first stop on the tour was La Poronga, a pinnacle rock formation made by the wind and rain. Then on to Charahota and Monte Rico. You'll notice that one of the rock formations looks like a face!

In the surrounding area there are lots of fantastic rock formations, all carved out by the elements. Surrounding them are mountains that reminded me of sleeping giant dinosaurs, the dry mud similar to their scaley bodies.

The mountains are a lot more colourful here with shades of red, blue and gold. The change in colour is abrupt, one minute red the next blue or gold.

After lunch we headed south out of Tupiza to La Torre, another pinnacle rock formation then onto Cañón del Inca which is the first place we saw other tourists and probably the best sight of the day. We scrambled through the canyon until we met a 3m wall. We attempted to climb but with no protection for my camera and no easy way up we decided it best to head back.

Seeing it late had advantages other than just extra sleep. I think the afternoon sun is my favourite light and today it made the hair of the cacti glow as if they had haloes.

The last stop of the day was Puerta de los Diablo. It appears to be what is left of a mountain. A thin section of rock in the middle of a flat area. It was halfway up here that we got the best views of the surrounding area and I could have quite happily sat up there until the sun went down. Unfortunately we were at the end of our tour and had to get back to Tupiza :-(

Once back in Tupiza we bought some oranges for our trip on the salt flats (the oranges are delicious here!). The first stall only had small oranges so I moved onto the next one. The first stall holder snatched the plastic bag she'd given me out of my hand then stomped off. Larger oranges in hand and slightly bemused we went off to get a tea/coffee.

For dinner I had a traditional Bolivian meal: pizza. However ours was pizza with a twist, it had an egg on top! Surprisingly tasty!

Well that's it for today.  Off to the salt flats tomorrow.  Will post again in a in a few days as I doubt we'll have an Internet connection.