A long day of driving in the Atacama desert

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Dan woke up with a strong pain on his lower left side of his body at 4am this morning. Panadol Forte didn't help much as the pain kept coming in waves. So it was decided that after breakfast, our group would stop at the medical centre at San Juan de Rosario to get Dan some help. After our dramas of yesterday with the tour company, we lost another friend this morning by deciding not to take the cook with us in our vehicle. When we were sold the tour, we were told that there would only be 6 passengers with a guide in the car and that all of the cooks were located at the hostals that we were to stay. We were happy with that news, because it meant a less squashed ride throughout our 3 days. They told us that we needed the cook to make us vegetarian food, however our cook was never informed of our eating preference yesterday and so didn't know to prepare it anyway. Needless to say that the tour company didn't like us and we don't like the tour company!

At the medical centre, the doctor/nurse gave Dan a jab in the butt and prescribed some pills before we were on our way once again in the 80 series Landruiser that we were travelling in. Oliver, the French guy that helped us retrieve our bags from the stranded bus outside Uyuni, made a miraculous appearance during Dan's consultation and was able to help translate Dan's illness and about how much medication he needed to take and when. He was travelling with a different tour company, but had stopped by to get some medication for his own stomach pain. We owe that man another beer!

Back to our travels for the day, our first stop was a lookout where we could see a smoking volcano. The Atacama Desert is full of volcanoes. Not all of them are active, but it was interesting to see the puffs of smoke go up out of the one visible from the mirador. We drove on until Laguna Hedionda (4125m) where we were blasted by the wind whilst we tried to take photos of the long legged flamingoes that were grazing in the lagoon. A hundred photos later, we sat down to lunch with our guide after helping him set up, as the cooks from the other groups (with the same company) didn't look like they were going to help him with it.

It was a long morning of driving and the afternoon was no different. We stopped a couple of times for photos of other lagoons with famingos and also at a rocky area where we spotted a viscacha. We had seen heaps of vicunas and llamas along the side of our dirt track, but it was the first time that we saw the fox-like rabbit looking animal. The only other attraction for the day was the arbol de piedra (tree of stone). A rock had been worn by the wind and rain to make a tree-like formation. SOunds boring, but within the surrounding landscape, it was quite unique. Most of our drive had no rocks or much vegetation, so it was finally interesting to see something other than dirt! It was extremely windy there, making it quite cold and uncomfortable to walk around, as the sand would blow in our eyes and mouth and gave the butt a bit of a chill when using nature's loo.

But that wasn't the windiest that we were to find it. Further along the track we stopped at Laguna Colorada, which has blue and red waters. More flamingoes were feeding in the water, althogh I don't know how they managed to stand up, as the wind was so strong that it was blowing the little Japanese girl that was on our tour around outside. A guy from a different vechicle had to stop her from blowing over the edge of the hill. Dan and I decided not to get out of the vehicle, which in itself was swaying and being sprayed heavily with sand.

We arrived early afternoon at our basic hostal for the night. It has no showers and the electricity only works when they decide to turn it on in the evening. Dan and I hired an extra warm leeping bag each to help us stay warm in the simple shared lodging. Everyone in our group once again shared the same room, with some lucky enough to have soft beds and others who lucked out, like me, with hard concrete like mattresses.

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