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On the last full-day in San Pedro, we went to the highest and most beautiful Salar de Tara. We went with Flamingo again and this is the tour that didn’t work out. The road through the mountains was closed in the morning due to ice and many huge trucks transporting cars from the Pacific harbors were queuing up. We had breakfast in the desert and finally the road opened. We passed ALMA radio telescopes located at ~ 5,000 masl and had to wait a little more for plows to clear icy roads. We first climbed to 4,820 masl (in about an hour,  45 km) and then started descending towards Salar de Tara at 4,320 masl. We left main road near Salar de Aguas Calientes (fed by hot water springs). First stop was Monjes de la Pacana, rocks shaped by high winds (and the winds are really strong there).

Only few agencies go to Tara and that day there were 3 vans from Flamingo, 3 Latchir and 1 Ayllu. Our 3 vans were supposed to stay together and 2 much newer ones did, but they were loosing us frequently. Our van was older, unlike all other Flamingo tours that had a driver and guide this day our guide was also driving, and there were 11 tourists in spite of limit of 10. In the middle of nowhere we got a flat tire, not unexpected in a rocky desert. The other 2 vans were just in front of us at this moment and could see us, but they chose to drive off, leaving us alone. Something that should be a quick fix turned to be (almost) the end of our trip. There were no adequate tools in our van and the guide, Piotr and another guy tried for 2 hours to remove the wheel screws. Of course there was no phone signal there and the guide didn’t have a satellite phone.  We were stuck at 4,400 masl. After more than 2.5 hours one of the other vans came empty to check what happened. The driver had right tools and changed the tire quickly, but our spare had a hole! Fortunately their spare was the right size. All other people from our van decided to return to San Pedro, but we wanted at least to get a glimpse of Tara and decided to go on the other van to pick up its passengers (there were only 6 or 7 ). We were very unlucky that we were in the old van, as the others had a wonderful tour, new cars and both drivers and guides! But the real problem was the extreme unprofessionalism and neglect by Flamingo, since we were supposed to ride in a convoy for this very reason (not to mention sending a van with no proper tools and broken spare tire for such a remote trip) and the problem could had been solved  very quickly and everybody could have had a great tour. They left us on purpose because of some kind of conflict, and decided to act on that at our expens. We were very disappointed with Flamingo and, based on this experience, cannot recommend it. We met remaining van with 2 groups in it not far from the Salar and their guide agreed to go back for a quick visit, for which we were grateful. Our persistence paid off.

Salar de Tara is very beautiful, partially covered by salt crust, with the rest of water ice free, green algae, grass and bushes, yellow puna grass, surrounded by interesting rock formations (Cathedral rocks) and colorful volcanic mountains. There were many species of rare ducks including Pato puna  (Puna teal) with a blue beak, as well as Andean geese (Guayata) and Andean coot (Tagua). We are glad we had a glimpse of the Salar as it at least partially saved the day. On the way back the mountain passes were icy again, we passed frozen Laguna Kepiaco (normally a wetland with waterfowl) and got very close to Volcano Licancabur.

A trip to geysers requires an early start, in the dark at 5 am (winter time). We went with Flamingo, relatively small group and a good guide, but the tour was too rushed for us (same for all companies). We arrive at the last moment to catch sunrise over the mountains at the geysers, but we saw the sunrise, with mist/steam in the distance, driving the last couple of kilometers. The geysers are active only early in the morning, before the sun warms the air. It is quite cold at 4,300 masl, but we were well prepared. The temperature that morning was only -3℃. We walked on well marked paths among small geysers, had breakfast with a view right between them, and had an option to use very nice thermal pool, but with only half an hour and many layers of clothing we opted for more geyser exploration. The geyser field is nice as it is quite large (you can visit only 2 of 3 parts), with lot of steam in the morning, but eruptions are rather low.  On the way back we saw vicuñas, viscachas warming in the sun, waterfowl at Putana river wetlands and an active Volcano Putana. We stopped in a small village Machuca which thrived during times of llama caravans, but now is revived as  tourist stop served on rotating basis by one family of the community. There is church that locals don’t allow tourist to go into. The village was abandoned and only recently rebuilt, houses have new roofs (metal with solar panels) decorated with grass to imitate the old look. Since we went towards the church we didn’t have enough time to try llama skewers (anticuchos).

In the afternoon we walked along the river from San Pedro to nearby ruins of fortress Pucara de Quitor – at last on our own, accompanied only by very friendly dog. The ruins of Atacameño culture fortres are on steep hill overlooking  river valley, well protected on all sides. There is a series of miradors on nearby hill with very nice views towards San Pedro, Rio San Pedro, the desert and Valle de la Muerte. Very nice afternoon. At night we tried to join astronomic (stargazing) tour, but we didn’t like it and opted out (I went to a wrong agency, next door to a recommended good one which I intended to go with).

Walk to Pukara de Quitor

Map combines 2 partially overlapping trails: to Pukara de Quitor and to Quebrada del Diablo.
Click on wikiloc logo to see more details

We wanted to visit Lagunas Altiplanicas (Altiplano lakes) and Piedras Rojas (red stones). The road to Lagunas Altiplanicas opened only 2 days earlier (it was blocked by drifting snow) and it wasn’t sure if it would remain open. Different companies offered different stories why the tour there or to Piedras Rojas was not possible. We went with Maxim (although we bought the tour from somewhere else) and got quite lucky. Collecting passengers took long time, but it was a small group and apparently we were the last van admitted to Lagunas Altiplanicas (snow melts later in the day creating too much mud) and larger buses were not allowed at all. There was really a lot of snow, certainly I didn’t expect that in the driest desert on Earth, but this is Altiplano, over 4,100 masl. Miscanti lake was frozen and the all white landscape was beautiful but quite different from the usual brown/red/yellow desert colors. There was no wind so it felt quite warm. The road to the smaller Miñiques lake was not cleared. We saw many vicuñas  on the way.

The road to Piedras Rojas had a sign “closed except for official vehicles”, but all tours went in without problems. Flat red stones (piedras rojas) led to another frozen lake surrounded by volcanos, very beautiful. Here it was windy. We had time to walk around and onto the frozen lake. Piotr spotted a cute furry viscacha very close on the rocks. We stopped for lunch in Socaire, in a different restaurant than all other groups, simple and tasty.

The last stop was Laguna Chaxa in Salar de Atacama, at lower altitude and not frozen, in the middle of the Atacama salt flat. It is visited by 3 species of flamingos, we saw many chilean flamingos and I think I spotted a smaller and paler James’s flamingo. There were also andean avocets and ducks. It was a very nice full-day tour. The guide was good, but I wished she offered more explanation.