When we signed up for the 3 day Salt Flat tour, we didn't really know what to expect. The saleslady named off a bunch of locations, but it really didn't mean much to us at the time. On day 2, we discovered that days 2--3 weren't really so much about the salt flats as they were about the surrounding areas. Nevertheless, day 2-3 were fantastic. We saw colorful lagoons, complete with flamingos. We were surprised that they were pink because in Africa we were told that they get their pretty pink color from the crustacions they eat. Our Bolivian guide, France, informed us that the color came from the algae, not the seafood. He also informed us that these James flamingos were rare and live at these lagoons yearround. We laughed as the flamingos appeared to moon-walk in the wind, across the ice.
There were also these rabbits that hang out in the rocks. You can't see it in the photo, but they have these long bushy tails and a wise, Asian goatee (picture the guy from the children's story, "The Old Man and the Sea.")
The Andean landscapes were fantastic (obviously). And I never got tired of seeing all the llamas. Here, they say "yamas." The double "ll" is pronounced "y," as in "tortilla."
On the morning of Day 3, we woke up to snow. It was freezing. Mark and I hadn't experienced winter in 5 years, so it was... especially chilly.
As we pulled away from our unheated dwelling, the sun came out and the snow began to dissappear. The rest of the day was spent looking at interesting rock formations and canyons. They were cool, but our car got rock fatigue. With the cold, we weren't too interested in getting out to take pictures of "another rock."
This place was pretty cool, though. Our group hiked down to a lagoon, but Mark and I hung back to enjoy the pools and roam amongst the llamas. We ended up having lunch in the canyon which was beautiful, but windy.
One of my favorite stops was this incredible canyon. As we hiked down, I thought to myself, "the US probably wouldn't allow this hike... too dangerous." Ah, but the views were incredible.
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