We had an early 5am wakeup. I felt like berating the staff as breakfast wasn’t ready til 5:10am, but couldn’t be bothered. I’m sure there was a rule I wasn’t aware of allowing them to sleep in. At least we did get pancakes, freshly made the night before…..
We drove onwards to Sol de Manana, a steamy collection of geysers with no fencing or barriers and the freedom to walk amongst them all in a creepy steamy unearthly landscape. Very cool and completely different to a laguna.
Steam!
We continued onto a hot spring with about 20 4WD’s and its passengers all trying to get into the one hot spring. apparently it was really nice, I just couldn’t be bothered and I was tired. The 30 minute nap did wonders to my energy levels though.
So our final destination was another laguna, Laguna verde with Volcan Licanbur behind it. Many people have photographed this green lagoon and its volcano. You can see why when you see the beauty of the place in real life.
More steam vents
The border was just the other side of the volcano, so we drove around to a hut in the middle of nowhere, mostly for people on 4WD vehicles transferring to Chile or for people coming from chile to do a quick tour of the Bolivian Altiplano and salt flats. We had a quick lunch and transferred to a mini bus that drove on a nice sealed road al the way down a steady slope losing a bit in altitude and gaining a lot in temperature.
Our accommodation in San Pedro de Atacama was a little bit out of town, but San Pedro seems like a nice little town in the Chilean desert.
Laguna verde and Volcan Licanbur