Lagunas of Altiplano

The second and third day of the Salar de Uyuni tour take you to the South of the Salar itself. This is a rather meditative trip. The endless road and the enormity of the Altiplano landscapes accompany you. Several lagunas (shallow salt lakes) are the central attraction of this area. They are unusual because of their colour – pink and green – as well because of the flamingos that inhabit them. The colour of the lakes is given by particular microorganisms, and they are also the primary food of the flamingos. It is quite cold on the Altiplano year round, so this breaks the stereotypical view that imagines flamingos as tropical birds. They are doing very well indeed here, in the great remoteness not bothered by the humans.

San Juan village on the morning of the second day.


The sky there was quite amazing, as if blown up with white flowers.

A llama in San Juan.

The railway connecting to Chile, but no longer used, as the minerals that were transported on it once have been exhausted.

Active volcano Ollague.

You can see the smoke from the crater on the left.

Laguna Colorada, which is actually pink.

Yeah, which planet is this?

Our driver Zoher once again is obliged to go below the Landcruiser.

Meetings on the road.

On the morning of the third day we reached the geysers, which are quite close to the Chilean border. As in Iceland, the hellish sulphur smell is overpowering and does not create a desire to spend a lot of time there. In addition, we came there very early in the morning, when it was chilling – according to our driver, 15 below zero.

As a compensation, we could swim in a thermal source. I hesitated for a while before jumping in, as the air was still very cold.

But what a pleasure it was!

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