We started the tour (also called the Southwest Circuit) in Tupiza, doing it the reverse of most tours (which start in Uyuni). We arrived from Argentina and are headed north, so it made more sense logistically, but also gets us to the sites at different times from the bulk of tours.
We met our driver and cook, and headed out in our Toyota Land Cruiser. The first day was a lot of driving, with the main attractions the following days.
The scenery was amazing, with lava formations, eroded sand cliffs, abandoned Spanish villages, quinoa fields, llamas, sheep and donkeys. We reached a maximum altitude of 4855m. I got a bit sick, but I think more from heat stroke, as I was sitting on the sunny side most of the afternoon.
The driver and cook were great at paying attention to our health, and were very concerned that I might have altitude sickness.
We stayed the night at Quetena Chico (4200m), in a very basic hospedaje. We were the only tourists (tours that start in Tupiza do more of the southwest), so raided the extra beds in our dorm room for blankets.
We were in bed by 9pm, and slept all the way through till 6:30am. The altitude was exhausting!
Day 2 started with us in much better health (and so spirits). It was a short (90 minute) drive to Termas de Polques, hot springs (30C) that now have basic facilities. When I was here 10 years ago, there was just water coming out of the ground. Now they have built a small pool that captures the water, about a foot deep. We took off our shoes and socks, rolled up our pants and relaxed on the ledge for a while. The water was very soft.
Next we drove through a valley that looks like a replica of a Dali painting. It's a big stretch of sloped sand, dotted with house-sized boulders. It's deceptively large. We parked near one boulder, and thought to walk to another to take a picture. After five minutes and not getting closer, we thought better.
Next was Laguna Verde, one of the highlights of the tour. It's mint green lake, (from high concentrations of lead, sulfur, arsenic and calcium carbonates), at 4400m, with Volcán Licancabur (5960m) rising in the background.
We had lunch at 4400m, within view of Laguna Blanca.
En route to the next stop, we drove past the hot springs again, which now looked like Daytona Beach at spring break. We were glad we visited earlier in the day.
We drove through a pass at 5000m, the highest altitude of the tour, without any altitude problems. Just over the pass is Sol de Mañana, filled with geyser basins and bubbling fumaroles (and sulfur fumes). Not that impressive as other sites we saw earlier, but still interesting.
The last stop of the day was Laguna Colorado, a fiery red lake with hundreds of pink flamingos feeding. The red comes from the algae and plankton in the water that the flamingos feed on. I got some good pictures, but a big zoom lens would be better. The flamingos move away from humans and vehicles.
It was a shorter day, we were in a hospedaje by 3:30pm, with a view of Laguna Colorado.
There were other groups also in the hospedaje, about 30 tourists in total. At least we had our dorm room to ourselves. Electricity was from a generator and was on from 7-9pm, so it wasn't a good place to recharge camera batteries.
We had dinner at sundown, and were in bed by 8:30pm. There was no light switch so I had to unscrew the lightbulb in the room to go to bed.
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