Before getting to the salt flats we stopped at what they call the "train cemetary", old steam trains, apparently from England, just left to rust on the outskirts of town. There must have been at least 20 trains there.
We were absolutely awe when we got the salt flats themselves, and had to take the obligatory "no depth of field" shot, i.e. Cate holding mini-Simon...
We carried on from here in the 4x4 to the Islas Pescadore, litterally an island in the middle of what used to be an ocean. Check the video...
The cacti were very cool, Cate had been waiting the entire trip to see cactus that look like they´re supposed to look...
After lunch we crossed more of the salt to our lodging for the night, a building made entireley of salt, pretty cool. We only had power for a couple of hours at night, but enough to charge the camera battery for the following day.
It was a long day in the 4x4, but we got to see loads of flamingoes in the various lakes we went to. These two are the rare James Flamingoes, feeding on some algae.
Cate was somewhat shutter happy (undstatement of the year) and took hundreds of photos of the flamingoes that we´ll share with you when we get back.
That night´s accommodation was probably one of the most basic of the entire trip, but it didn´t matter too much as we were woken at 3.30am by our guide to go and see the geysers at sunrise. They were fairly calm and were only shooting steam, appparently when they are more active they shoot mud and boiling water, making it a bit dangerous to get close to them. It was really cold up there, 4965m so warming our hands in the hot steam was really nice.
From there we continued on to some hot springs where our guide told us there was no breakfast unless we got in to the hot baths. They were lovely and warm, but we both bottled out due to the freezing air temperature and the fact we only had hand towels with us. Still, it was beautiful to see the sun come up over the moutains.
After breakfast, we were taken to the border with Chile, which seemed to take ages to cross, but eventually we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, in the Atacama desert - the dryest desert on earth.
We staying in a really nice hotel here with hot showers, pool and internet, a nice change from the last few days.
So, a very Merry Christmas to everyone, we miss you all loads and are looking forward to seeing you very soon.
Lots of love,
3 comments:
awesome.... merry christmas lovelies, see you in a few days woo hoo! love nik
Happy Christmas. We have just finished our day of celebrating Christmas and getting ready for bed as we want to get up early and head off for a week's camping at Barrington Tops. My family plus Niki and Mosse had a traditional Christmas lunch before opening presents. After my family left Niki and Mosse stayed leaving at 8.30pm. Unfortunately my dad was not able to be with us as he is in hospital with pnenmonia but we all visited him during the day. Thankfully he has greatly improved and should be home in a day or two otherwise we were not going camping. Your trip looks amazing. It sounds like it has been a real adventure and we look forward to seeing the photos and hearing the stories. Unfortunately we will not be home when you fly back into Sydney and not sure what your plans are re getting your car back straight away. Depending on weather etc we are aiming to be back either 1 or 2 Jan. However if you want your car before then we only took one set of keys so the other set is with Hidde if you wanted to come and collect it. Enjoy what is left of the rest of your trip. See you in the new year. Love Dad and Lee
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