11th- 12th February
San Pedro De Atacama
Day trip out to Geysers de Tatio – 4am gibbering cold start to make the 2 hour trip up into the Chilean Andes to see the 2nd highest Geyser field in South America (about 4400m). Primevil feel to the landscape with bubbling pools of mud and steam streaming from the ground. After much foot stamping and hand clapping to keep warm (it was only just below zero but apparently in winter it gets 20 below!) the sun made an appearance at about 7.30 and some how on queue the geysers started to erupt (correct verb?).
A hearty breakfast was then followed by the freezing cold half naked dash to the hot springs for a bit of mud hydrotherapy. Pretty minging with another 40 or so people bathing in their own dead skin and mud but it had to be done.
Stopped in an Inca/Atacama Indian village on the way back down for some Llama kebabs and then made our way back to San Pedro.
Valle De Luna - Funnily enough it did look very much like the moon (NASA tested their Mars rover here) and we were treated to an excellent geology lesson by our guide as well as some incredible views of this extra terrestrial landscape.
Pukara de Quicor Fort – 400 year old + fort originally built by the Atacama Indians and then taken over by the Incas to secure the surrounding area. The conquistadors had a hard time taking this one and when they finally did they placed the heads of all the prisoners they took on spikes every couple of meters around the perimeter hence its other name the Hill of Heads. Nice.
13th -15th February
Bolivian Altiplano
3 day trip up into the Bolivian Andes for a whistle stop tour around the natural wonders of the Altiplano. Average height was around 4600m with the highest point being the Geysers at 4850m.
In no particular order we had the pleasure of seeing:
White Lagoon
Green Lagoon
Dali Rock Desert
Salt Lagoon
Hot Springs
Morning sun geyser basin
Red Lagoon (lots of flamingos)
Stone tree
Lagunas Honda/Chearcota/Hedionda/Canapa
Ollague Volcano
Chiguna Salt Flats
Uyuni Salt flats
Train Cemetery
Salt mines
A special mention for the Uyuni Salt Flats. Roughly the size of Wales, totally flat with Salt up to 7 m deep, has 70% of the worlds nitrate reserves and is a great place to do ridiculous perspective photographs.
Night of the 15th saw an interesting 7 hour bus ride which finally got us to the southern Bolivian town of Tupiza at 4am after 2 breakdowns and a reminder on why you should never look out of the window when travelling on a Bolivian bus.
16th – 18th Tupiza
Great little town with a Andulcian feel. Very chilled out with some lovely people and very cheap hotels.
Some how I volunteered to accompany Sally and Leena (our new German friend and translator) on a 2 day horse riding trek out to the local valley. Obviously I was a natural and other than a saw ass, reformed knee joint and a new found respect for Katie Price, it was a great couple of days in the big countryside of the Bolivian brokeback mountain country. Big hand to the horses,Arturo and Romino for their patience and understanding over those 2 days.
19th Bolivia to Argentina.
7am bus to Argentina, in the hotel in Salta by 5pm.
Should have been that easy but obviously the French had also settled in South America just after Colombus turned up and unfortunately left their striking allele in the Bolivian gene pool. Apparently the whole of La Paz was on strike so our bus didn’t turn up until 9, by the time we got to the border the rest of Bolivia looked like it wanted to cross into Argentina and we had an enjoyable 6 hour queue to get our passports stamped by Captain Jose and his equally inefficient border agency stamper Manuel. I managed to keep shouts of Goose Green, Tumbledown and Port Stanley in my head and we finally got over to La Quica, Argentina at 4pm.
After all that fun and games it was even better when the bus company wouldn't honour our tickets without a 1 hour argument and after a change of buses in Jujuay for good measure we finally made it to Salta at 2 am. Not the best of days but we were due a dodgy run at the border after our good luck so far.
