Updated: Day 4-5 The Bolivian Altiplano

Climbing 3000 metres from the Chilean desert we cross the border and enter the Bolivian altiplano. The road is dotted with wrecks of camiones where brakes have failed on the long steep road into the Atacam desert. The next three days will be spent exploring the stunning landscapes between the Salar de Uyuni and Chile’s Atacama Desert by four-wheel-drive. This area’s unusual landscape of mountains, active volcanoes, and geysers is like nowhere on earth.

The tour takes us to Laguna Verde (5000 m/16400 ft), a lake that owes its striking blue-green colour to high concentrations of lead, sulphur, copper and other minerals. The numerous geysers, boiling mud pools, thermal baths and Licancabúr volcano (5960 m/19549 ft), which looms just behind the lagoon, are evidence of the region’s volcanic activity.

Laguna Colorada (4278 m/14,031 ft), a large red lagoon whose colour is the result of algae & plankton growth in the mineral-rich waters is the next stop. Surprisingly, both wildlife and flora manage to survive and even thrive in the desolate landscape, including vizcachas (of the rodent family), flamingos, and assorted varieties of cacti.