So the second day of the tour and word on the street was its not as good as the first day. I’m going to say it completely different. Brerakfast though was a complete let down. A hot water thermos and a bread roll and a few spreads. I just had a cup of tea in protest to the previous evenings shenanigans with the Evil Salt Hotel Lady.
Our first stop was to view Volcan Ollague and one of its steaming fumeroles from a lookout spot. The colours of the volcanoes and mountains here go from yellow to green, to red to grey and then the blue sky. Very colourful and beautiful scenery.
Then came the lagunas. I think today all up there were 5. Canapa, Hedionda, Chiar Kota and Honda, were the four in quick fire succession leading into lunch. they were all beautiful and all had a local flamingo population as well. None of them looked enticing to swim in and were most likely toxic to humans anyway. At lunch we were dropped off on the biggest and walked for 30 minutes to a building were lunch was served. All along the walk were signs saying not toilet breaks dangerous until we reached the building which said toilets this way and eventually the sign said toilets 5 bolivianos. Generally with Bolivian toilets you get what you pay for and this was quite expensive and wasn’t too bad for a remote toilet stop. Today for lunch we had some delicious chicken and veggies as well. Lunches provided have been pretty good I must say, we’ve had 2 little picnic lunches on a table somewhere pretty remote with a dozen other 4WD tour groups!
Flamingo coming in to land on the laguna
After lunch was another laguna, which by now we were getting laguna fatigue, similar to church fatigue often felt in Europe. We continued on to the the Arbol de Piedra. A stone which resembles a tree in the fact the Base is quite narrow and the top spreads out like tree branches would. I personally found the surrounding landscape and rocks more exciting.
Onwards to the ultimate stop, Laguna Colorada. Yes a lagoon of many colours. By the time we arrived, the wind had picked up and the clouds increased overhead. You could still see multiple colours in the lagoon including red though.
Laguna
We continued on to our refuge for the evening. Nothing great a 6 bed dorm type arrangement, a toilet and an area to eat. Again the rules were strict, without actually knowing the rules, you had to break them first to find out what they are. Like sitting at the right table, you get enough hot water for one hot drink each. They got really grumpy because some people who hadn’t had a cuppa (they didn’t know it was available either) asked for some hot water. Ooh wasn’t that a bad thing to ask for. The staff at the two overnight stays were in my opinion rude and the worst thing about the tour.