Altiplano and Atacama

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So picking up where I left off, the bus headed into the hills, and the tropical forests retreated to leave grass climbing up the these huge mountains, still covered in cloud from the rain. Soon the grass gave up; there were some cactus and some spectacular rock colours, and the road hadn´t even turned west yet! As we climbed up the road the cactus started to thin out, leaving only rock and mud. But what rock! It was sculpted by the wind or deeply cleft by water, and then amazingly, the hills started to green up again - a spiky grass that I had seen in Patagonia and another bush, and the road carried on it´s way up the side of the hill. We topped out about an hour and a half after we left the last town, at 4170 metres. I had a slight headache and was trying to drink every time it got worse. Seemed to work... we dropped down a few hundred metres onto the Altiplano.... straight onto Salinas Grandes - a big Argentinian salt flat, pretty spectacular, and by now the grass was a golden colour across the hillsides. The bus company then put a movie on that I really wanted to see so I spent a lot of the trip rubbernecking!
The salina gave way to desert scrub, and after another hour or so we reached the Argentine border, a sunny, dry place where we had to wait for ages!! The headache hadn´t got any worse, and we eventually hopped back on to the bus. They chucked another movie on (I quite wanted to see this one, too) and we started to climb. I´d run out of water by now, and thought I probably ought to have a post lunch snack.... about 10 minutes later I started to feel really rather ill!
The headache was worse, I was seeing spots in front of my eyes, and I was sweating badly. I put my head between my legs in the hopes that would cure the spots, then I could go get some more water... After a while we started to go down again and I started to recover, but then I wanted to take lots of pictures!
In the hostel the manager told me the road goes up to 4800 meters, I´m not sure I believe him, though!
We entered Chile in San Pedro itself (I was glad of this as we had to carry our bags, and I couldn´t have done this on the Altiplano), and wandered into town to find a hostel.
Turns out that San Pedro is a really cool little town - adobe houses with mud streets, lots of restaurants and tour companies, and lots to do. It being 6pm I just chilled out for the evening, then this morning I went swimming in a salt lagoon - you float, but what sadly the flamingos stay a long way away! then we visited another couple of lakes, and went sandboarding this afternoon, good fun, was getting the hang of it, but then disaster! The view from the top of the dune was stunning and I took my camera... guess what happened on the way down.... well now the camera doesn´t work... And I have to go to plan b - avoid the altiplano and head for the coast to see if I can get the camera fixed. That should be a fun conversation! Star gazing tonight.

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Photos

looks inocuous enough
until you drop your camera!

Salt Valley
in the Salt mountains, no less

UV warning
not many clouds...

Comments

[Dr Astelia]

Heard the altiplano is disapointing at best, you probably won't need your camera. I'd come back now

[amatth11]

That's an idea
Actually it had crossed my mind! Let's see what happens with the camera.