Fly me to the moon...
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
46
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Laguna Colorada,
Bolivia
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
After we drove through more strange fossilized algaeish formations we arrived at the moon. But it was reddish instead of gray and had an excellent view of an active volcano. The rock formations were incredible, made of porous volcanic rock with a rusty hue. They stuck out and swirled all over, providing all of us tourists with a giant rock playground to clamber over while searching for the perfect photographs. Off in the distance the volcano sent off a puff of smoke. We were told that the volcano itself is actually in Chile, but you get great views from Bolivia
a Bolivian military outpost
. Can't deny that. Bonus - we saw a vizcacha on one of the rocks, but it got scared and ran away into some dark hole. We also saw the vizcacha in Peru - it looks like a rabbit in front and a chinchilla in the back.We spent much of the day in the jeep, but that was because we had multiple destinations to achieve during the day. They were almost all lagunas, and at all of them there were the flamingos. There are three kinds of flamingos that live in the Bolivian lakes on the Altiplano. One is white with black tips, one is whitish-pink with a salmon tail, and the last is whitish-pink with black bands on the edges of its wings. The black and white one is the most rare, and it may also be highly inbred, because all of the ones we saw were sliding their beaks along the ice at the edge of the lake rather than feeding in the water like all the other flamingos. Or perhaps they were particularly smart because they knew how much poo was in the lakes. I think about half the birds we saw let loose on the one end while searching for food in the same area with the other. Kinda grody.
Anyway, the flamingos were beautiful, and we took loads of photos. Some were content to stay in the middle of the laguna, while others preferred to feed near the shore. All of the tourists ran to these to try to get a great close-up photo, which, naturally, scared them all away
the train to the border
. Also, the edge of the laguna was rather boggy, and if you stood in one place too long you were apt to sink. Just my luck, I was the only one in my group to end up with wet socks. Oh well. The second lake was better, sandier, significantly smellier. We were dropped off at one end and ambled along the shore looking at all the flamingos. When we reached the other side of the laguna we had the lunch, so it was really a high point of the day. Our drivers kept telling us that the meat we were eating was flamingo. After a couple gasps we got into the spirit of the joke. The Altiplano had several different colored lakes, not all of which were varying shades of blue. Our first stop after lunch was at the silver lake, and, after I heard its name, I could totally see why it would be silver (my first guess was gray, but then Travis gave me the translation). It was almost as if the lago had been glossed over, but I don't think it was covered in ice. It was just silver.
At the end of the day we saw the red lake, or the Laguna Colorada, near which we spent the night. We had espied another (or perhaps the same from another angle) red lake in the morning, but it didn't compare to this lake. Our jeep always stopped above the lake so that we could really see the depth of color in the lake, and it was seriously red
the train to nowhere
. The red coloring was caused by algae vegetation in the middle of the laguna. The edges of the laguna were a dull gray-blue or covered by white borax. From a distance, the borax and the algae made a candy cane effect that creates fun pictures. Good times. Between the two lagunas we visited a vizcacha colony, which was located in a giant rock formation with zillions of ins and outs. Our first vizcacha was under Aaron, who had decided to climb on the rocks, and we tried to get him to scare it down toward us, but I don't think he heard. Then all of a sudden it bolted, and I decided to climb up in search of my own vizcacha. Travis came too. While we were up high the group on the ground spotted another critter closer to the ground. I started to make my way over to where everyone was pointing cameras, and just as I was getting close (I was moving slowly so as not to scare the critter) this little furry thing shot up toward my foot in one of the rock's crevices, so I screamed and it turned around and ran the other way and everyone on the ground started laughing, wondering who was more scared, me or the vizcacha. On the up side I scared the rodent into a perfect pose for Travis so that he could take a picture. Then we climbed down.
Then there was a vizcacha that apparently really liked attention because he started up high, but plainly visible, and made his way down to about eye-level where he sat and nibbled on some greens while we all ogled him up close. Super cute. I liked the little furry things the best, and so everyone had to bundle me into the jeep so that I wouldn't hold up the whole group. Oh well.
Next we went to the famous rock tree
cool rocks
. It's been shaped by sand and rain over the years and really does look like a tree, at least on one side. Although in photos you only see the tree, it is actually part of a large cluster of interesting rock formations. I'm sure Travis could have wandered around for ages. I found one that resembles a toadstool, and I think that's cuter than any rock tree. But if you want to see the rock tree, you had better go, because it's sinking and, while people used to climb it, no one does anymore because it looks like it will fall over. And it is pretty spiffy. Our hostel for the night turned out to be much better than we expected. We all six shared a room, and the beds were made of stone, but they had mattresses and lots of blankets. Best of all the bathrooms were indoors this time, so we didn't have to get really cold feet when we woke up to use the toilet in the middle of the night. Woot. And at dinner there were French fries in our soup. Very strange.
Erin
