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Published: January 31st 2007
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Well it was somewhat of an early morning with a wake up call at 6:30AM so that we could be ready for breakfast at 7AM. Somehow, I was ready and packed pretty early, so I decided to wander around outside our hostel until breakfast was served. The fields were empty, unlike the day before when they were filled with llamas and sheep. I could see a bit of movement up the hill behind our hostel and found two corrals full of llamas. Pretty quiet animals I must say and they didn't make any sounds, rather than the passing of some gas, as I approached them. Pretty cute animals, but definitely not good animals to use to protect you as they don't squeal, bark or moo at you.
Breakfast was served right at 7AM. Seemed strange that it was right in time as we were in Bolivia 😊 I guess for the tourists, they try to keep things more on time. After breakfast, we packed up the jeep and were off for the second day of our tour. Our first stop was at a lookout point of an inactive volcano. We were very fortunate to see an Andean rabbit at this
site. Andean rabbits have long curly tails and more or less run instead of hop, so they are distinctively different that normal rabbits. The second stop was at a "laguna" filled with flamingos. It was incredible how many flamingos were here. I am not sure if I have ever seen a flamingo before and I am sure I have never seen one in the wild. The "laguna" was very shallow and the flamingos come here during the Andean summer to feed on the plankton, algae and other minerals that these lakes are composed off. Another fortunate event was that there were vicuñas, a relative of the llama, feasting beside the lake so we had a good view of them. Our tour group seem to have been making it to all the sites about 10 minutes ahead of all the other groups at this point, which was nice because these locations were never crowded.
Finally, it was closing in on lunch hour. Our jeep dropped us off at the end of another "laguna" to check out the three different specifies of flamingos in this lake and told us to meet up with him near the other end for lunch in
45 minutes, so we took our time watching the flamingos and just enjoying the spectacular view of a multicolored lake with mountains of sand in the background. Lunch again was very good and like the rest of the day, we were the first tour group off again. In the afternoon we stopped at "El Arbol de Piedra" or the "Stone Tree". This rock in the middle of the desert has been eroded by the wind over the years and now resembled a tree. This is the famous rock at this point of the desert, but what got me was all this other huge rocks in the middle of the desert. How they got to be in the middle of the desert puzzles me.
In late afternoon, we arrived at the Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, a national park which contained the Laguna Colorada. After paying to enter the park (which was not included in the price of the tour) we drove to the other side of the Laguna Colorada to get some good views. The lake is at an elevation of 4278m and believe it or not, is only 80 cm deep, pretty shallow for a lake
that is 60 sq km. The red color is from the plankton and algae in the waters, while other parts of the lake contain different types of minerals and are different colors, such as the shoreline. Flamingos inhabited this lake as well. Lots of flamingos at this time of year and during the Andean summer, this is when they come to feed in the lake. Too bad that the Andean summer corresponds with rainy season and the low tourist season.
Our hostel were we would stay the night was close to the Laguna Colorada. Tonight, our entire group would be sleeping in the same room and lights out (more like power out) was at 9:30PM. No showers tonight though! Supper was enjoyable like all our other meals had been. Diego, the cook's son, joined us at the table after dinner to keep us entertained. After dinner it was off to bed early as wake up call was 4AM for the final day of the tour.
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