Hey everyone Justin here, coming in hot with the first guest post!! Guess I'm JLS'ing the world, YO! 😂😂😂
Before I dive too far into this post, I'd like to say a few things. First off, thanks to Brittany for letting me finally write my own post. And second off, I apologize ahead of time if I repeat things Brittany has already mentioned as I was too damn lazy to write this earlier (This is about 3 weeks after the fact). However, these are coming from my perspective, so they may be slightly different :)
With that said, let's dive right in. This post will cover our journey through the southwestern Bolivian highlands which we needed to travel through in order to arrive at the Bolivian Salt Flats. Even though the Salt Flats were the ultimate goal of this trip, the journey there was a highlight for me. In order to get to Uyuni, where the salt flats were, we needed to drive through the Bolivian province of Potosi. This journey took us two full days of offroad driving in a Toyota Land Cruiser.
What's really insane about those two days is just how many different natural wonders we were able to see. It's crazy to believe that everything mentioned below is only from the first day. There was another full day of highlights that are just as amazing with completely different landscapes that happened before we even got to the salt flats. Unfortunately, it took me 3 weeks till after the fact to write this post, so the odds of that day ever becoming a post are quite low. If you want to hear about it, please contact me (or Brittany!) directly and I'm sure either of us will talk your ear of for hours on end about it. Who knows. Maybe popular demand will motivate me to write it. Anyhow, I digress. Back to our Potosi journey, Day #1.
Getting to the Bolivian Border
One of the main routes to (and through) Potosi, Bolivia is through the dusty old town of San Pedro de Atacama, located in the mountains towards the top tip of Chile at around 8,000ft elevation. Here's a map for everyone who wasn't an overachiever in Geography class. This tiny podunk little town itself doesn't have too much to offer. But, we did manage to spend a full day there and found some pretty neat adventures. I'm going to skip the details as Brittany did a wonderful job covering them all here. It's also the closest town to the Bolivian border so it's where everyone goes through. We left town around 8am with a different tour company then the one we'd booked with to go meet yet another different tour company at the border.
Getting through the Border
We didn't have too many issues getting the visa, and it quickly became apparent that this place was something special. Even the mountains behind the Bolivian border patrol were laughably gorgeous. What really made this place special was how raw and untouched it truly felt. The border patrol office was just a smidgen above a shack. I felt pretty bad for the guy bundled up in his winter jacket inside as this place clearly had no heat. It made it crystal clear we had left a relatively modern society in Chile and entered the 3rd world in Bolivia. We quickly arrived to what is known as the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve (mouthful) - filled with mountains, lagoons, deserts, and more. The drive through here is a must see on anyone's list.
Pictured below:
Left: Me and Brittany with some pretty mountains in the back. Right: That little shack in the picture is the Bolivian border patrol.
Lagoons
Once through the border, the drive only got prettier. This part of the world is known for it's high altitude lagoons that are teaming with Andean flamingos, especially in the summer time. In the winter time, they're cold, frigid, and depending on the salt levels, frozen over. Out of the many lagoons we saw, I personally felt the first lagoon we made it to was the prettiest. Fair warning: There's like 3 fucking lagoons. Pretty sure I saw more lagoons today then I have in my entire life. FYI - a lagoon is essentially a lake with no water source feeding it. So yeah. Lagoons are not lakes. TIL (Today I learned). If you're not actually interested in the info about them (I probably wouldn't blame you), just feel free to scan the pictures.
Lagoon #1: Laguna Verde
This place really took my breath away. This was the first of many lagoons along our journey, but my what a site to be seen . This lagoon has a greenish appearance, which is caused by arsenic gas being trapped beneath the lake. What really made this lake special was the volcano behind it. Known as Licancabur, it is nearly a perfect cone and has a peak of around 19,500ft! It's the tallest mountain I have personally ever seen.
As we grew more adventurous, we started to walk out onto the ice. The ice was more then able to hold us (thankfully). The raw beauty behind this place made it one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had.
At this point, I decided I was going to play Mr. Photographer and that I could take cool looking videos. Well, said videos turned out to be pretty damn lame. After some cropping efforts, I was able to turn them into GIFs. Hopefully they can give you a bit more about what being there really was like.
Lagoon #2: On to Laguna Blanca
After about an hours drive north (hell if I know, I have ZERO sense of direction) we arrived at yet another awe inspiring lagoon. Situated at 14,200ft, this lagoon was surrounded by a harsh rocky terrain. So we perched up on a plateau that overlooks it. This lake is composed heavily of salt, trapping several kinds of minerals below the surface. That's what gives it the milky white texture it's named after.
Geothermals!
After our long morning off-roading and site seeing, we arrive at the Polques hot springs. These pools are unique in the sense that instead of the normal foul smelling sulfuric pools that we're used to, these ones were composed heavily of salt. They are famous for easing arthritis and for the breathtaking view of the volcanoes behind them.
Geysers Galore
Following lunch near the hot springs, we moved on to the next stop. By this point I'd blown way past my record for most photos taken in a day. And you know what? I didn't give a shit. It was spectacular. And I had a field day at these geysers. The last geyser I'd seen was old faithful in Yellowstone. However, I was too young to remember so this was my first real experience with geysers. And I guarantee you in the states, you're not allowed to run through them. Thankfully Bolivia has no rules so we did whatever the hell we wanted to.
Yep, we were stupid enough to run into that. In case you were wondering, it's hard to breathe when surrounded by sulfuric fumes from a geyser. Here's a video honoring our efforts
Road Trip!
Following those insane geysers, we embarked our a 2-3 hour drive through the mountains en route to our final stop of the day, Laguna Colorada. This has to be one of the prettiest drives I've ever done Along with perhaps the best driver I've ever met. Every shift was perfect. There were places where he'd turn and we'd be wondering what landmark tipped him off that he needed to turn there, as there was truly nothing around. I can't remember the last time (if ever) I'd spent hours with my head out the window simply admiring the view. Here's some photos of our experience:
Brittany clearly agreed. I have this long standing tradition of taking awesome hyperlapse videos when I'm on amazing drives. Brittany kindly decided to help me out this time. I hope this gives a good idea of the type of terrain we went through. Towards the end of the video, you can see the next lagoon peaking out.
Lagoon #3: Laguna Colorada
Final stop for the day. Phew. Honestly such an exhausting day. Even now looking back on all the pictures, I can't believe to sheer amount of different places we managed to see in a single day. Finally. Laguna Colorada. Sitting at 14000ft, this lagoon is particularly interesting given it's unique red color. The color comes from the type of algae that blooms in the lagoon, along with some of the sediment from the surrounding geology. This is one of the main lagoons the flamingos hang out in. The Andean flamingos here gain their distinct red color from consuming all the algae in the lake.
FLAMINGOS!!! Flying through the sunset. TIL that flamingos can fly, albiet awkwardly. I wish I could've gotten a better shot of them, but they were being a bit shy and staying quite a ways out from shore.
We capped off our day with an amazing sunset over a lunar like landscape.
Hard to believe we were able to see all of this in the course of a single day. I will be back here some day. It's high on my bucket list to see this place again during the summer time.
