Today we drove across the Salar to Inca Wasi, an island of rock protruding up through the salt. Only 3km long by .5 km wide, this island is covered by fossilised algae and giant cacti, some over 10m tall. Apparently, they only grow at 1 cm /yr, so that's 1000 yrs!
Males have straight stems, but females are more complicated.
In amongst the stones we spotted the Andean rodent viscacha - a rabbit with a long tail. Lyra' s eyes were peeled for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, we could not catch any on camera..
We left the Salar and visited a cave which had the most amazing 'stalactites' which had been formed underwater...
We drove south, gaining altitude, passing through the Siloli desert with some wonderful rock formations, formed from fossilised coral.
Its a bit like where's Wally, but with Lucas.
The track was rough and the ride was rough. We passed this active volcano on the way - the top is the border with Chile.
The only other vehicle we saw for 5 hours - lucky since we had a flat tyre and the spare hadn't been pumped up!
We stopped at a lagoon and spotted some rare James' flamingos
Another lagoon
As the land got higher, the vegetation became more sparse, the snow became more widespread and deeper. We finally arrived at the most remote hotel we have ever seen - like an Antarctic base station. Powered by a generator which was switched off at 9 pm, it was actually very comfortable, with huge duvets and piles of blankets on the beds. Nevertheless it was freezing, and at 4600 m Daddy hardly slept at all - . We needed two matches to light the candle as the first went out with the lack of oxygen
The view from the window.
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