Ice Age

It's increasingly difficult to keep tthe blog up-to-date as we explore more remote sites. So forgive me.

Route: Salar de Surire - Termas Chiriguella - Lago Chungará - Lagunas de Cotacotani - Putre

Time: 9am - 6pm

Highlights: The trip back over rocky roads is definitively fun and a challenge at times (see below). And as always plenty of Vicuñas and Lamas. The destination with lago Chungará is worth the rough ride. Supposedly the highest lake of the world at about 4600m we are surprised to see birds getting their nests ready for spring. The wind is chilly and it's hard to accept the picutre. The scenary once again great: a huge over 6000m high vulcano (Parinacota) "standing" in the lake. A few km farther we find beautiful lagoons full of birds again. We even spot some flamingos.

Tip of the day: Take a dive in the all-natural thermal bath at Chiriguella. Picture this: dirt road on the left, on the right a natural pool of hot water and a little cabin to change. And probably no one in the range of 100km. Even though it's windy we're fine. And the humidity of the air is so low that you almost dry on the way from the pool to the cabin.

Intermezzo: If looking out of the driver's side window you see dirt, something's got to be wrong. More on the audio line later on (but those who saw TopGears' test of a Toyota Hilux can take a guess). We live and learn.

Temperatures: At night -3ºC. This is the record so far and just a peek at Bolivia's temperatures. Our sleeping bags were supposed to handle down to -12ºC but we were cold already and ended up piling blankets on the sleeping bag. Maybe I should mention that we slept in a container (Big Brother style - just no cameras). In the morning the windows were frozen... Out in the desert it's rather warm again and the sun is strong at more than 4000m.