Music: None
Today started fairly early and without a shower (no hot water). We set out over more of the same terrain as I had yesterday. The first stop was at a set of rock formations that has been clearly shaped by the receding waters quite some time ago... Given that this was over 4km above sea level *really* quite some time ago. There is a formation known as the stone tree as it looks pretty much like a tree, cunningly.
Onwards from there we came to a red lake, the red colour comes from an animal that lives therein. After that was a geothermal area with steam spewing up into the air with the constant sulfurous whiff. Next was a green lake (actually very bright turquoise). The colour of this is due to the mercury content of the lake. Then we went up and over to the Bolivian border post (at which Rolf is pictured).
I had to wait here for almost 2 hours to be picked up. Partly because we'd made such good time in the morning and partly because the bus coming to pick me up was 40 minutes late. In the end we drove high up onto the hill to try to get a mobile phone signal but as we were just starting to get reception we spotted a white bus coming over the hill. This was indeed my ride and it took me down into San Pedro de Atacama from there.
The Atacama desert is one of the driest places on the planet, but I arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm. The first road we tried to access the hotel via was blocked as two cars had got stuck trying to cross a small stream that was flooded due to the rain. One of them was being washed a little downstream even though the crossing was only about 6m wide.
I've now updated all of my photos to date, posted a couple of videos and have updated my blog with all of the entries I'd written while I was out of contact. I think that'll do for now.
:)
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