Christi and I are woken at 4.30 am and leave the hostel at 5.30 am in freezing darkness. And it’s scary driving through the desert at night. But in order to have the best experience of the Sol de Manana geyser basin (4,950m / 16,240 feet), you have to arrive by dawn. Surprisingly the area is not too crowded and we get to enjoy the majesty of the towering, hissing fumaroles, the cracked and steaming earth, and the belching mud pools relatively undisturbed.
Next up are the undeveloped Termas de Polques hot springs, which bubble at a comfortable 86oF. Some hardy bastards strip off and dive in, but I prefer to warm my hands around a mug of breakfast hot chocolate. Christi decides to roll up her trousers (and her thermals) and cautiously dips her toes in the reinvigorating sulfurous water, but not, despite my best encouragement, her aching butt.
Our final destination in this little corner of heaven on earth is Laguna Verde and Mt. Licancabur (a beast at 5,930m / 19,455 feet). According to our driver, Richard, when the conditions are windy (and remarkably that isn’t the case today) the lake appears green (due to a toxic combination of metals, including copper). Conversely, on calm days, such as today, the majestic cone-shaped mountain is reflected perfectly in the lake. Utterly sublime. The southwest of the country truly has to be seen to be believed. Thank you Bolivia. It has been a fantastic 3.5 weeks.
The border with Chile is surprisingly close, just around the corner (actually just around Mt. Licancabur). We are met by a mini-bus that ferries us and most of the tourists to San Pedro de Atacama (in Chile), leaving the beat-up 4WDs to race back to Uyuni. This is where the day takes a turn for the worst: Chilean customs and immigration insist on scanning the luggage from every passenger. This is an excruciatingly slow process. When we finally reach San Pedro, we quickly realize that lodging – in fact almost everything in San Pedro – is super expensive and we can’t get a bus out of this small, but very busy, town for two days. It’s a glum night.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart, a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching ride
Speak Your Mind