What a day!!
It was still dark when a 15 passenger van picked us up at 7:10 am and I
would describe the temperature at that time of day, as very chilly. We picked up a
total of 11 passengers and headed out of town, driving south along the Andes
Mountain range.
The drive was on a good
road, the sunrise was beautiful, but as we climbed the temperature was
definitely falling!
We were about 80 km.
out of town when all of a sudden there was a tire issue.
Oops, the left rear tire only had two of the
5 lugs holding it on!!!
No wonder there
was suddenly a lot of vibration.
The
driver immediately called the tour company to send out another van. In the meantime,
several older gentleman (older than us) in the group suggested he take 1 lug
from the other rear tire (not front tire) so this tire would 3 lugs and the
other tire would have 4, giving us a chance to go on to the only next town on
the road where we would be having breakfast.
This worked!
By the time we
finished breakfast a replacement van had arrived.
In the transfer of our stuff, tire chains were
also put into the new van.
Tire
Chains!!
What is this all about?
Well, in another 40 km we were driving on
roads covered with newly fallen snow. It honestly was only a half inch, but
when we entered a National Park, all vehicles had to stop and put on
chains.
Well, this was not an easy
process, especially when the chains are not in the best of repair!
All ideas were applied to the process – even an
old rag was used to hold them on!!!!!(see photo). By the time we reached our
destination there was approximately 1 ½ inches of snow on the ground.
Most of the other tourists had never been in snow.
They were feeling it and taking all sorts of photos, but by now it was
COLD.
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| Sun Rise |
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| Tropic of Capricorn Marker on the Inca Trail |
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| Old Inca Trail |
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| Snow Covered Road |
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| Vicuna along the road |
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| Putting Chains on to get to the lakes |
From the time we left San Pedro we kept climbing
higher and higher until we were at 13,000 ft. in the Andes Mountains.
We are at this location viewing 2 lakes created
at the base of two mountain peaks.
These
lakes are known for their birdlife – one of the birds builds its nest on the
water to stay away from predators.
They
use sea weed growing in the lake and somehow stabilize their nest to the sea
weed but their nest is actually floating in the lake. While at the lake
enjoying the view, mountains and lakes, it began to snow!
The other tourists went crazy taking photos in
the falling snow!
Oh and one other thing – the last 4-5 kms of the
climb this replace van had transmission issues, but thank goodness they were
able to fix it.
What a day regarding
transportation.
However throughout the
whole day we had wonderful views of the snow covered Andes Mountain in this
part of Chile. At the elevations below the snow covered peaks it is desert, but
not as barren as we saw around Calama yesterday.
Today there was some sage brush and other
desert plants – some even had little pink flowers.
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| Lake (Laguna) Miscanti |
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| Laguna Miniques |
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| More Vicuna |
After being at the top, we began our descent.
We are now enroute to the area of salt
lakes.
There is a large area with salt
deposits.
Due to there not being rain,
the salt deposits are not flat like we think of then in Utah.
(see photo)
There are three species of flamingo who love this area, as well as other
birdlife. It was an extremely interesting area – however not what we were
expecting.
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Flamingos at Salt Lake |
G
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| Salt Crystals |
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| Salt Crystals near the Slat Lake |
On the return trip we saw several herds of Vicuma –
wild llamas.
What an interesting day.
Tomorrow we are beginning our day at 5:00
am.
Again we have to drive a distance
and need to be there at daybreak to see geysers erupting. Warm clothes will
definitely be needed again.
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