Day 64 - Red rocks and high lakes

San Pedro de Atacama

Today we had booked an all day trip to the Lagunas Altiplanicas for our last full day in SPdA, so after being picked up around 7:15am our first stop was at the small town of Socaire for breakfast.

After breakfast it was on to Piedras Rojas, a rock formation right by the Salar de Água Calientes. The scenery was amazing, the view of the red rocks, blue icy water, salty shore and surrounding mountains was well worth the visit, though it was incredibly windy and cold, with the altitude and the wind chill factor it felt even colder than yesterday. At that altitude any exertion also makes you puffed very quickly, so we had to take it easy when getting around.

After that is was on to see the lagunas - Laguna Miscanti and Laguna Miñiques, both close together and surrounded by mountains. We walked along the edge of Miscanti for a while, and were then taken on the bus to see the nearby Miñiques - more beautiful views.

It was back to Socaire for a nice two course lunch, then on get a closer look at the Salar de Atacama. We stopped by Laguna Chaxa to see a large number of flamingos feeding and flying about, then proceeded from there to the village of Toconao to see the old church, and also browse the souvenir shops (along with all the other tour buses that arrived at the same time).

Back in SPdA we spent some time finalising our preparations for our trip to Bolivia in the morning. This included buying "emergency" supplies of food in case the food on the trip wasn't up to par, and getting ripped off at the money changers as we had no choice but to use their services to get the Bolivianos we needed along the way (for park entry fees, for example) until the next ATM in Uyuni three days later.

Happy Birthday M!