Framedlight

We left the lodge at 5.00 in the morning, driving out in to the dark past the Laguna Colorada, heading south towards Chile. Just before dawn we could make out the shape of steam billowing and mixing with the frosty air. We had reached the geothermic area of Sol de Manana or morning sun, very appropriate. We were up at 4580m so it was pretty nippy. We were given the customary twenty minutes to look around and I set up my tripod. The sky was reddening in the distance and I got some pictures of the general area and a geyser (although apparently not a geyser according to Wikipedia but a bore hole in the geothermal field). Mairi posed in front of the 'not a geyser' but Naomi came in a bit late and hadn't realised that I had asked Mairi to stand still for a long exposure. The sun was coming up fast as we drove off and headed for some more steam and hot springs past some beautiful mountains catching the warm early light. There was a lot of activit...

On the second day of our Salt flat tour we got up after a night in the Salt Hotel near San Juan. The bed had a base of salt, but did have a mattress and we slept in our down sleeping bags as it got very cold. Breakfast was good and we had pancakes to fortify us for our 7.30 start. The salt was now mixed with the sand and grit of the Salar de Chiguana. We were not that far out when we came across the railway line. Pauli asked us to walk across while he took the Land Cruiser across. I don't know if this was because the thing would not have got across with us in it (it was a fairly old specimen) or that he thought it safer for us if we walked. There was no road to speak of - only tracks in the sand. I would not have wanted to be driving this on my own. Soon the great Ollague volcano came in site. This is situated on the Bolivia/Chile border and towers to over a mile above the surrounding plain. There is the remains of a road running up it which rises to 5,650m ...