James’ and Sara’s Excellent Atacama Adventure

Day 5: Clouds and more colours

Ok Sammy, I consulted dr Google ( as the guide clearly didn’t know) and the “some place in Russia” is on Kamchatka Peninsula and has the second largest concentration of geysers in the world!!!!

James and I have been wowed by the magnificent cloud formations we see over the Andes mountains and volcanos. The really interesting thing about the clouds ( Martin, are you listening to this, given your obsession with weather) is that there are NO clouds for most of the year. The clouds ONLY happen when it’s rainy season (Feb/March) ….. And there is NO snow on the mountains in winter as it is too dry…snow on mountains ONLY happens in summer.

Here’s a selection of cloud creations

Today we travelled south to an area called Pueros Rojas (which means red rocks but we saw some other brilliant colours) and it is a few kilometres from the Argentinian border.

We went to a lake called Salar de Talar, a salt lake with red rocks. On the way, the grasses turned yellow as it is above 4000 metres above sea level.

We saw some more vicuña, and an ostrich like bird called a rhea (which is very rare to see, according to our guide) and a rabbit like animal called a vizcacha, all of which like being in high altitude.

Salar de Tatar is normally a very windy and cold spot, but unusually today it was calm and sunny and we were able to see many reflections of the landscape in the salt lake. Beautiful colours

We then visited two lagoons called Miscanti and Maniques lagoons which were once one lagoon, but a volcanic eruption separated them on the surface but they are still connected underground .

On our way home, we passed the Tropic of Capricorn and a sign for the Inca trail which went from Patagonia to as far as Peru ( remember we saw the Inca trail when we went to Machu Picchu).

Our final dinner at the hotel was a magnificent bbq.

We travelled to Calama the next morning to catch our flight to santiago. On the road we saw the extensive copper and lithium mining operations, miles of windmills and solar panels.

And here we are outside Calama airport , and as was the case everywhere in Atacama, the dogs have a good life!

Unless Santiago is absolutely riveting, this is probably the final blog. A truly fantastic holiday. Thanks for following us and for all your comments 😀