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.
