San Pedro de Atacama - Day 2 (Lagunas, Lagunas, Lagunas)

A good 90 minutes drive southeast of San Pedro one can find two stunning lakes: the Lagunas Miscanti y Miñiques. Heading towards the lakes gave us time to soak in the emptiness of the desert. This was a very overwhelming feeling.

The mountains are never too far away

Since the lakes count as attractions in the altiplano area, they are frequently visited by tourists. There are facilities like toilets and even a place to stay at night. Hence it was almost impossible to have the place on our own.

Catching a moment with no people in the background

It is not possible to move around freely, because there are marked trails and guides who have an eye on every visitor. But for me that's okay, since otherwise the nature would be damaged more than it has already been.

The smaller one of the two lakes: Laguna Miñiques

Personally I found it very strange to have a lunch break with some basic stuff while sitting besides tourguides preparing a meal for VIP tourists. But I suppose those kind of clients are bringing the big money to the area. Independant people like backpacker or for instance ourself are usually traveling on a tighter budget.
So leaving the crowd behind is good motivation to keep on driving down the road!

Our second goal only 20 minutes further down the road: Salar de Aguas Calientes / Piedra Roja

This place was by far the most impressive one. I can't believe that there are far less tourists compared to the Lagunas Miscanti y Miñiques. We were actually on our own, if we don't count the flamingos, which were approached by Anton in a very professional way. *lol*
After all we had the time to drive even further towards the border to Argentina and see the Laguna Tuyajto. Again there was no sign of other people.

Ain't we cool?!

On our way back we run into some vicuñas, preseved some amazing impressions, had time to fool around a bit and even visited the Laguna Chaxa which is known for spotting flamingos. I saw some of them but wasn't so impressed after all.

The end of an awesome day

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Pictures copyright by Dennis Willam. All rights reserved.