June 28th, 2015
One day after being utterly blown away by Piedras Rojas tour I find myself up at the slightly more humane hour of 830 at San Pedro Backpackers waiting to be picked up for another tour which comes highly recommended by people a trust, the final destination today: Salar de Tara. For those of you who’ve checked out my three blogs on my trip to the Uyuni Salt flats, you should know to expect something incredible. And for those travellers in San pedro without the time or desire to enter Bolivia to see Uyuni, Salar de Tara tour is certainly a good second option, though not the same thing. The price tag is pretty steep, even with my frequent booker discount I pay 35000 Chilean Pesos (70 Canadian dollars) but trust me, it’s money well spent. (Thanks Dad for the birthday gift!)
Around 8:45 I climb into another white minibus and we’re off. This tour goes up to 5000 meters again which means I’ve got my sweatshirt and tuque handy. It’s a long drive to our first stop, Laguna Diamante (diamond Lagoon) which ends up being a frozen lakes. The Lovely south american people on my tour marvel at this mysterious phenomenon while I head out onto the ice, somewhat under awed. I know frozen lakes while, and while the towering mountains surrounding this one do make it an impressive sight, its hardly something incredible to me. The curse of being Canadian I suppose. Still as the rest head for the shelter of the van and the warmth of breakfast I head out to the far end of the lake to find the small unfrozen section of the lake fed by a glacial stream stemming from the surrounding mountains. Out there alone a good distance from the crowds there’s something beautiful about this place. And I’m sad to head back to the van to move on to our next stop.
Half an hour of crazy mountain driving later we leave any semblance of a road behind and go cross country until our friendly driver guide whose name I have sadly forgotten pulls to a stop and points out a giant phallic shaped rock ahead of us. He explains that the whole area here is a vast caldera and that millions of years ago huge volcanic eruptions tossed massive chunks of rock great distances to places where they still rest today. This one is particular striking and the group piles out of the van braving the cold winds to advance on the rock. I’m the first to clamber up to the halfway point wishing I was more of a professional rock climber as summiting this thing would have been very cool indeed. We don’t stop long here though and soon it’s off to our next stop, a mirador of some incredible mountains and other landscapes some thirty minutes across another desert without the faintest trace of a road. This tour at least is one I would not recommend doing in your own vehicle.
We climb out at our next stop and marvel at yet another impressive vista in and around the Atacama desert. Our guide stoops and picks up a small rock, cracking it’s dirty outer shell to show us pure black obsidian as he tells us that ancient people in this region used it to make arrowheads and spearpoints for hunting and weaponry purposes. Cool stuff but I’m quick to move on and get some baffled Chilean, Brazilian and Venezuelan tourists to take some more titanic shots. I probably need to cut down on these someday, but not today. Not Today.
We climb back into the van but not for long as we head down from the scenic mirador into a massive field of those preciously mentioned thrown volcanic rocks, these ones reminiscent of my second day on the Bolivian Salt flats tour. I’m first out of the minibus, searching for a way up and wishing again I was in better shape for rock climbing. Still I make it higher than anyone else scrambling up the jagged brown rocks and fighting the wind to keep my balance as a snap a few shots of the view. As it always seems to be, down is harder than up but I manage to scramble down unscathed and climb back into the car for our final stop of the day. The Salar De Tara.
The bus stops up a hill with a truly stupendous view and we climb out, following instructions from our guide to walk down the path and along the lake. We’re given about 40 minutes until lunch time in the little refuge at the edge of the Salar and shallow lake. The colours are reminiscent of Laguna Colorada and while there may not be any flamingoes in sight, there is a pack of Vicuna’s feeding in the shallows of the Salar.
I take my time walking down letting the rest go ahead of me, before deciding to hurry up in case the vicuna’s decide to leave. I know I’ve got more time than any of them, as I’m not planning to waste any of my brief time here with something as frivolous as lunch. So while the rest head to the refuge, I head out along the path right along side the Salar, marvelling at the mountains in the background, the multi coloured lake, the Salar, and the vicuna’s feeding. I take way too many pictures as seems to happen a lot, and walk as far as I can out along the trail ignoring the biting cold.
Eventually I head back only to find the Vicunas have moved to an even better location for photography and I’m joined by a Venezuelan and chilean friend to snap still more photos of these rare and surprisingly fleet of foot creatures who eventually leave the water behind and head up into the hills just as our white mini bus pulls up to take us back to San Pedro De Atacama. Photo Overload!
It’s a long ride back to the hostel where I sadly have to pack up, bid goodbye to my friends there and catch a night bus to Arica with Tur bus. (21,000 CLP 42 CAD). From Arica it’ll be back to Peru and Arequipa where I’ve organized to meet up with most of the salt flats crew again.
When I first came to Chile I intended to spend less than two months in this strange narrow country, four months laterI’m still sad to leave and hope that one day not too far away i might end up back in Chile. The people, the food, the landscapes, the vast variety in everything, it truly is a travellers dream. (Granted a somewhat expensive dreams.) I made countless friends in Chile, had countless irreplaceable adventures and all in all loved my four months. I know I’ll be back I’m just not sure exactly when. Expect a top ten experiences/places in Chile in the somewhat near future. And lots to come from Peru. Carnivals, chocolate making, trekking, and of course the world renown Machu Picchu! Luke Style!
