Yesterday the moon, today Mars

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Day 2 of the Atacama Desert( 1/5) was another great day. Today we got up and had breakfast at the lodge and then our guide from yesterday picked us up. (He didn’t think her would be our guide today). We got in a van and there were 2 other groups, both from Sao Paulo Brazil with us. The young couple was nice, the parents of the other group were nice but the kids were brats but oh well…. Kids are kids everywhere. Our first stop was to a small village (Toconao) about 20 km from San Pedro de Atacama. We saw a llama and local craftsman shop and a church that was built in 1750.



As we drove along our guide showed us all of the volcanos. There are probably about 20 in this area. One had a bit of steam coming out of it and a couple of them had snow on the top.



Our next stop was the Flamingo reserve and Salt Flats. We saw a large variety of Flamingos( Did you know there were multiple kinds, I sure didn’t and they have 3 of the varieties here).



After the salt flats we drove to the Lagoons which are at an altitude of 4200 meters (about 15000 ft). It was tough doing much exertion here with the lack of oxygen. But again the scenery was beautiful. We did have to dress warmly for this portion of the trip as it was a bit brisk. On the way there we drove thru areas that looked like Mars.



Next we stopped for lunch which was a good break but I do have to say, Shelly’s vegetarian meal looked and probably tasted a lot better than my fish stew I got. This is the one time I wish I had requested a veggie meal.



As we came back into town, our guide told us to all take it easy tonight, don’t drink much and don’t eat too much meat. You see, we need to leave a 5am for the next day’s adventure and it will also be at a very high altitude.



So Shelly and I got back and cleaned up and went out to an early beer and then a light dinner and then back for an early night.



Oh yes, I finally learned how to us the panoramic setting on my good camera. Wow, some of the pictures were great. We also saw some wildlife along the way (llamas and something kin to them, a fox, donkeys, an birds)

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Photos

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Llamas or the animals kin to them

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old church

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C & S at the salt flats

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Flamingo with reflection

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One of the many volcanos

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my first panoramic. This is one of the high altitude lagoons

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Canyon

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Fox