The second day on our tour was scheduled to be the longest one; in the end, we spent about 12 hours getting from one hostel to the next. To make this during daylight, we had to get up really early. Our guide woke us up at 5 am, and we left at 5:45.
Our first stop were the ruins of San Antonio de Lípez, the old site of the village we had slept in. During the Spanish occupation, the village had 5000 inhabitants, most of which were slaves working the nearby gold and silver mines. The Spanish built 27 churches, most richly adorned with gold and silver. The splendor of these days is long gone, however, and today there are only ruins left.
This cemetery was used as a mass burial place for the hundreds of people who died of a disease imported by the Spanish:
Today the ruins are inhabited by Viscacha - a Bolivian animal that looks like a cross between a kangaroo and a rabbit ;-)
A little later, we discovered that even four wheel drive jeeps can get stuck. One of the vehicles driving in front of us didn't make it through a particularly muddy part of the road, and the other drivers had to help by putting big bundles of grass in front of the wheels. Our driver later made it through without any problem - he's the best, of course :-)
The landscape continued to be stunning throughout the day. This, for example, is the view from our lunch spot:
There were quite a few lagoons on our way. This is Laguna Celeste, populated by beautiful pink flamingoes.
The view of the lake with the clouds and mountains in the back was quite dramatic:
One of the next lakes, Laguna Verde, appears green only when there is wind. The wind mixes the minerals in the water, arsenic and magnesium, thereby producing a green color. Without wind, the minerals sink to the bottom and the lake appears white. Luckily, we had a bit of wind - but unfortunately no sun ;-)
This is the desert of Dalí, named like this because the volcanic rocks strewn around the area look like they could have been arranged after one of Dalí's paintings. My photo doesn't really do it justice - the landscape looked fantastically surreal.
The colors of the mountains never failed to amaze me. So great!
Later, we got to take a bath in a natural hot spring. The temperature was perfect, nice and hot. None of us really wanted to leave.
The final highlight of the day were the Sol de Mañana geysers. The area around the geysers looked like another planet, really wonderful! And I love bubbling mud pools, so it was the perfect end to the day.
The geysers are at an altitude of about 5000 meters above sea level. So here is proof of me at my highest ever altitude so far:
Our first stop were the ruins of San Antonio de Lípez, the old site of the village we had slept in. During the Spanish occupation, the village had 5000 inhabitants, most of which were slaves working the nearby gold and silver mines. The Spanish built 27 churches, most richly adorned with gold and silver. The splendor of these days is long gone, however, and today there are only ruins left.
This cemetery was used as a mass burial place for the hundreds of people who died of a disease imported by the Spanish:
Today the ruins are inhabited by Viscacha - a Bolivian animal that looks like a cross between a kangaroo and a rabbit ;-)
A little later, we discovered that even four wheel drive jeeps can get stuck. One of the vehicles driving in front of us didn't make it through a particularly muddy part of the road, and the other drivers had to help by putting big bundles of grass in front of the wheels. Our driver later made it through without any problem - he's the best, of course :-)
The landscape continued to be stunning throughout the day. This, for example, is the view from our lunch spot:
There were quite a few lagoons on our way. This is Laguna Celeste, populated by beautiful pink flamingoes.
The view of the lake with the clouds and mountains in the back was quite dramatic:
One of the next lakes, Laguna Verde, appears green only when there is wind. The wind mixes the minerals in the water, arsenic and magnesium, thereby producing a green color. Without wind, the minerals sink to the bottom and the lake appears white. Luckily, we had a bit of wind - but unfortunately no sun ;-)
This is the desert of Dalí, named like this because the volcanic rocks strewn around the area look like they could have been arranged after one of Dalí's paintings. My photo doesn't really do it justice - the landscape looked fantastically surreal.
The colors of the mountains never failed to amaze me. So great!
Later, we got to take a bath in a natural hot spring. The temperature was perfect, nice and hot. None of us really wanted to leave.
The final highlight of the day were the Sol de Mañana geysers. The area around the geysers looked like another planet, really wonderful! And I love bubbling mud pools, so it was the perfect end to the day.
The geysers are at an altitude of about 5000 meters above sea level. So here is proof of me at my highest ever altitude so far:
