rini's notes day 6

Mar 1 : San Antonio de Lípez – Laguna Colorada

We woke up early that morning with the view of Cerro San Antonio de Lipez on the horizon. That morning, the altitude started affecting some of us.

At 7:30 we arrived at the San Antonio Viejo ruins which is well-known with the name Pueblo Fantasma (Ghost Town).

Long story short, a small rich mining town turned into a sin city. God punished the people with disease. Some people left, some stayed and died. Even now, at night the people who live in San Antonio de Lipez can hear the crying of people (ghost) coming from this Pueblo Fantasma.

We saw many excavations on the site, a proof that many people had come looking for treasure left beneath the ruins.

Another car problem. The hand-break of Papamovil1 was broken. Then the guide car had his second flat tire or the fifth incident of this trip.

We spotted some vicuñas along the way and noticed the form of the bush was quite interesting, circles. We continued the following : a mirador at 4850 masl to view Cerro Suniquera, Laguna Morejón with Volcan Uturruncu in the background, the entrance of Parque Nacional Eduardo Avaroa and two small villages, Quetena Grande and Quetena Chico.

Then we stopped for lunch in a nice place surrounded by Quetenas and Suniquera snowpeaks and Volcan Uturruncu. The meal was not as gran as yesterday, but it was okay. We ate scramble sausage and onion with french fries and white rice.

In Laguna Hedionda (one of two) there were flamencos. Hugo managed to take photo of them flying. Borax mineral was the product extracted in Laguna Kollpa.

We passed Salar de Chalviri and Dali Desert before we stopped in Laguna Verde (4550 masl) which is located in the foot of Volcan Licancabur. The water in Laguna Verde is turquise green with arsenic content. The view was spectacular. The wind was so fierced, some of us couldn't stay long outside the car.


Now the dipping. We were in the volcanic area so there were hot springs all around. Idel took us to this spot just 10 minutes drive from Laguna Verde where we practically jumped into the pool histerically. We opened the cold beers from the cooling box. Too bad, Idel only gave us 30 minutes for this pleasure. Getting out of the water was traumatic because it was cold and very windy. We got dressed frantically and run like crazy back to the car to find warm and comfort.

The next stop was geyser Sol de Mañana (4870 masl) Bubbling mud and vapor were coming out from the small craters. The smell of sulfur was very strong. As Rini is from the land of volcanic mountains, she wasn't that crazy excited in Sol de Mañana. On the contrary the others were crazy poking in every holes in the area.

We took photos at the highest point of our trip, 5000 masl a place where we had the view of Volcan Pabellon.

We spent the night in Laguna Colorada lodge. The room was relatively spacious but no shower and the toilet was filthy. But we had no other options. This was the only lodging available inside the national park.

While Eu was preparing our dinner, we played cards. One group played Mus and the other played Uno. Eu served us with pollo al horno with french fries. The chicken was to die for. At 10pm the lights were off, we all went to bed.

Photos of the sixth day can be viewed here.