Vast, dry, sparse, thats our first thoughts as we leave our hotel at 7.30am. The tour promises breakfast and Lois, our guide for the day settles us in for the morning tour. We’re supposed to return by 1.30pm and this tour will test our altitude limits as we climb to 4200m above sea level.

After yesterdays antics at Quitor, where I climbed to 3000m and Elena opted out after the first climb which only took her up 400M we were a little concerned about her fitness level. We need to do this today as tomorrow we’ll ascend to 4500 as we climb up and across the border into Bolivia and farewell Chile.

Our tour today has a slower accent than that of the famous geyser and as we’ll be seeing the geyser tomorrow we opted for a more gentle climb for Elena. Personally I recon she’ll be all right, but we’re both on tender hooks hoping that we’ll manage.

Sabrina and Denise (a German couple) who we seem to be mirroring in our journey climbed to the geyser the day after taking the same bus journey and poor Sabrina was so sick from the altitude. Apparently to get to the geyser the road literally goes straight up to 4000m with little reprieve. So we’re a little worried.

Out tour of choice today is Lagunas Altaplanicas and Salar De Atacama.

The road to the Laguna Miscanti and Laguna Miniques, (two lagoons) initially starts off on straight (I mean dead straight) roads heading south on highway 23. There is a slight rise but not enough to notice as the Andes Mountains on our left and the Salt Flats on our right. Turning toward the mountains the climb begins and we’re wondering suddenly how steep the climb will become.

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The view just before we reach the lagoons

Paying the entrance fee of around AUD6 per person, we descended over a ridge and down to Laguna Miniques. The views here are spectacular. As breakfast is set up we make a break for the Bano (toilet in Spanish)

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Just to put things in perspective, that’s Elena returning from the Bano. This place is huge!
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Globetrotting Couple Wayne & Elena at Laguna Miniques,Chile

This is the smaller of the two lagoons and the larger is Laguna Miscanti. The altitude now is 4200m above sea level and we’re both ok, although you do feel its a little hard to breathe. Yesterday Elena asked me to loosen her bra to the last notch. I thought she might have bigger boobs, but no, she just needed more breathing space.

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Wayne at Laguna Miscanti
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Elena walking the path to Laguna Miscanti

With our time now turning attention toward the Salt Flats we descended from 4200m down the mountain to the lowest point on the Atacama Desert, Sala de Atacama. The salt formations are different to what we’ll see in Bolivia we’ve been told. All I know is we were blown away with the sheer size of the place. Lois our guide tells us that the Salt Flats where we are standing are 1.4km thick and extend 100km north to south and 45km east to west. It’s a place you wouldn’t want to get lost in.

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Pass the salt, Wayne sits amongst the salt at Sala de Atacama, Chile
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Flamingo on the lake – Sala de Atacama
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Elena walking the Salt Flats – Sala de Atacama

It’s one more stop before returning to San Pedro and that in the small farming town of Toconao, to view a small church built by the Spanish and to take a quick look around the town.

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Local Transport in Toconao, San Pedro de Atacama
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Local church in Toconao, San Pedro de Atacama, built by the Spanish
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This church was built in 1750

Returning to San Pedro we walked from the central town back to our hostel with Denise and Sabrina. They were checking out , but we would be meeting with them tomorrow as we’re on the same 3 day trip to Uyuni, Bolivia.

A quick time to update blogs before heading back to town this evening as we need to change our money before crossing the border into Bolivia.

Farewell Chile, its been short but exciting and the first taste of South America. Tomorrow, it’s into Bolivia.