<< An Amazing Orchard

04/05/12 - La Laguna del Altoplano (Part 1)

Once again we woke before dawn. By six o'clock we were racing along the dark Chilean highway towards the border with Argentina. First came the gloaming, and we could make out the dark silhouettes of the mountains around us. Then we could start making out more detail of mountain, road and vegetation. The air was thin and cold, maybe 14F. The heater in the jeep strained to keep us warm. We turned off the highway and onto a narrow, unpaved track.

The sun was still below the horizon when we stopped. Before us was the salar and the lagoon and around us were the mountains.

Not quite dawn at the lagoon

A snow capped mountain

A bit later with the dawn light

Crested ducks and the sunrise reflected on the water

More reflections at dawn

That's our jeep there. This shot almost looks like a Jeep-TM ad.

Andean geese walking on the ice

Three types of flamingos - James flamingos, Andean flamingos and Chilean flamingos

Another view of the flamingos on the ice

They look like tulips, all clustered together.

That's a mineral deposit in the foreground.

Keywords: chile