I never really like early mornings and today was no exception - 6.30am breakfast. Just why? We were leaving at 7.30am anyway. Why not push breakfast back a little bit? Especially as breakfast was only a choice of hot drinks and bread. We left the salt hotel and headed into the desert. On the way we spotted a wild desert fox type thing running through the very light shrubbery that assured us that we were indeed in the driest desert in the world. Many other llamas and alpacas were the only other animal that we spotted.
We arrived at an area of rocks at the base of several volcanos where we were allowed a rest. I took the opportunity to climb some of the rocks as Emma looked on in dismay. Hoping that I wouldn't fall or injure myself - typical.
Just before lunch we stopped off at a giant lake that was partially frozen. In the non-frozen parts were pink flamingos. Apparently in the area are James flamingos (genuine name), these pink ones could have been the exact ones, however I have no idea. There were maybe thousands of flamingos standing in the lake feeding. I've never seen wild flamingos before so this was pretty cool. I never realised quite how big their beaks are. A situation is always made better by the presence of a snow-capped mountain in the backdrop and this was no exception. After lunch we drove for two hours into increasing desolate surroundings. Sand and rocks suddenly then had layers of icy snow on top of them. Our driver expertly weaved his way through the safest route. It was weird to have the ice and snow and still be in blistering sunshine, not a cloud in the sky and only in a t-shirt. No extra layers required.
We found another group of rocks. This time however they were more isolated in the middle of the valley. They had been eroded by the wind over thousands of years. Most of them were really easy to climb and still fun. The main attraction was a rock that apparently looked like a tree. Not entirely sure I could see it but it was close enough and made everyone else happy enough. I was just happy with the rocks to climb - one of those days. We carried on further into the desert. Speaking of football and music to the Catalans. A shared love for Messi and Shakira was apparent. A quick nap later and we had reached our last main attraction of the day and it was seriously worth it.
It was the coloured lake. Bright red from afar, but upon closer inspection appeared to be almost a tomato juice colour. The lake was even bigger than the one previously seen, and like the lake earlier it had thousands of flamingos feasting within it. I couldn't take enough time to marvel at quite how unique this spectacle was. Naturally pictures couldn't quite do it justice but certainly went close to doing so. The mountains behind it were in full flow of ice too - perfectly topping off this ridiculously un-english scenery (definitely a good thing). After this we only had our hostel to go to. Dinner was quickly munched down with some accompanying Bolivian red wine - it had a very curious label on it saying something about Argentina... nevertheless it was delicious. Our guide said that he gave it to our group of six as a gift. It turned out to be instead of dessert? Interesting turn of events. After dinner we played cards with the Spaniards. Taking it in turns to do games that each of us knew. This occupied some time quite well before bed. Apparently it's meant to be very cold tonight - a joyous way to finish our time in Bolivia before we cross into Chile tomorrow.
