April 1/2/3/4/5 - The High Andes

Just unbelievable.

This post is long on pictures.  San Pedro de Atacama is a wonderful place to relax for a few days, and this remote corner of Bolivia was an absolute highlight (as was our group!)

It was great to leave the motorcycle for a few days and meet up with other traveling folks.  It was a mix of people on short vacations (Chileans), long vacations (wouldn´t it be great if we had 4-7 weeks of vacation like they do in Europe?), and people on loooong trips (me, a British ex-corporate lawyer enjoying life before moving on to the next thing, and a Swiss architect on sabbatical).

Laguna Colorado and the area around Uyuni was a real treat.  If you ever make it to this part of the world, it is worth the effort to do the  trip.

Our Land Cruiser coming to pick us up`at the Bolivian border.

Our Bolivian drivers packing our baggage on top, with nearly 6000m tall volcanoes in the background.

Everywhere you point your camera -  oh look its a beautiful photo.

Ditto here.  All the salt in the water makes it very reflective - sunsets are especially spectacular!

It is nearly impossible to capture the sheer scale of the Altiplano... 

Everyone was taking pictures - this is Jose, our resident Chilean who was doubled (tripled?) as our resident Spanish tutor and live musician.  

Taking more pictures than a bus load of Japanese tourists.

Dissolved copper and arsenic give the lake that turquoise hue.

Dusty.  The Paris-Dakar rally was staged in Chile and Argentina in 2011.  The reason was political instability along the African route.  Easy to see how this would be perfect.  Challenging terrain and no need to worry about driving through towns where locals might get hurt.

Land Cruisers are the car of choice for the trip... they are rugged, reliable, and when they break down (which happens more than you´d like to think, given the conditions) they are easy to fix.  Spare parts are also easy to come by in Bolivia.

It would take incredible courage and endurance to do this on bikes!  We are well above 14,000 feet, there is no water, and the roads are really hard.  I hope these folks made it OK.

Another futile try at capturing the landscape... Jeeps are lower left.  All that white is salt and volcanic rock.

Jeep in the distance... are we on Mars?

This spectacle is named the Dali Rocks and, yup, it looks (and feels!) just like a surrealist painting.

Lucas checks photos in the middle of nowhere.  3 out of the 5 in our jeep were Swiss... and most of the others in the group of 12 were British or Irish.  Not a lot of Americans in this neck of the woods.

More...

...and more, in color.

Our drivers also realized that listening to a bagpipe in the desert was one of the most random experiences in a while- but Jose was great (at 15,000 feet!) and we loved it.

Our first night - beautiful and remote.

The Maestro.

Lago Colorado - bacteria give the lake that color.  All those little pink dots are flamingos, and the white areas are crystallized salt.  The lake is gigantic.

Close ups of the flamingos.

These birds are really impressive when they fly.

Much cooler out here than at the zoo.

Who knew they had those cool patterns on their wings?

More oohing and aaahing over the landscape.
Unfortunately the conservation is still in the works ... the vegetation gets a little bit trampled and there aren´t clear walking paths.

Hard to believe this is a real place.

Billions of gallons of tomato soup.

Traffic at the busier stops.

Good opportunities for some easy rock climbing.

Unclear why the ¨S¨... local dealer?

Folks contemplating the deeper parts of life.  There were entire fields full of giant boulders like this one, allegedly from volcanic eruptions.

Some local construction workers even stopped to have their photo taken!

Our three drivers... hope they get down safe!

Jose and Cecile, hangin´out.

The locals decorate their llamas with ribbons... party for fun, partly to signify ownership.

Babies.

True.

Flat tire!  Our driver changed it out in about 5 minutes.  

Caravaning through the Andes.

We loved enthusiastic group pictures.

It was contagious.

All these were once used to haul salt from the salt lake in Uyuni.  Now its a semi-museum of sorts... these hulks sit rusting in the desert.

Nothing, not even being in the middle of nowhere, could stop us from being fabulous.

Incredibly sophisticated graffiti.

Welcome to Calchani - the edge of the salt lake near Uyuni.  It´s a home for some miners and for a few shops catering to the tourists that visit.

The contrast of the artwork with the surrounding is incredible... also, yes that is one of our friends smoking a cigarette in the bottom left.  The rainbow colored flag is the national symbol of the Aymara people.

Uyuni is the world´s largest salt flat, and salt mining is a big business.

It is also very manual and must be excruciatingly exhausting....

Salt piles waiting to get picked up.

Taking turns at trying to build salt piles...

...and being fabulous.

More flamingos... the lighting is really unique.  The salt lake reflects light from below, and at this altitude the sky is just a pure blue.  It is some of the clearest air in the world.

Lots of countries represented at the salt hotel.

Walking on salt... not easy!

Too good to pass up... we had some good fun with the perspectives out there.

80s record album cover?

Hot springs at 15,000 feet!  Steamy in the chilly morning.

Sunrise on the altiplano.