Day 8: Flamingos + Vicuñas

Our weekend trip to the Atacama was so jam-packed that we are breaking the days into pieces and each taking parts to write about. Collectively, we probably have over 1,000 photos from the trip so we won't regale you with them all, but we wanted a few posts at least to highlight some of our favorite moments.

In this post I will be talking about our first tour of the high altitude Laguna Meñique as well as the Salar de Atacama salt flats. All in all, the weekend was crazy busy but very worth it. We arrived at Hostel Pangaea in San Pedro de Atacama late Friday night after flying in and taking a shuttle to the town. On Saturday, we had a tour of the lagoons and salt flats starting at 6am followed by a visit to Valley of the Moon followed (accidentally immediately... that's another story :) by a night sky astronomy tour ending around midnight. 4:45am the next morning... we were up and out for our last tour of Geysers el Tatio. Suffice it to say, I think we truly maximized our time in the Atacama, returning at 2am on Sunday night/ I guess Monday morning.

Fun fact: the Atacama Desert is larger than the country of Italy! We only got to explore a few sections, but the incredible diversity of landscapes and creatures had us in awe. Normally I never go on "tours" when I travel, but I was really glad we went on our tours with Whipala Expedition. They picked us up from our hostel in a van and drove us out into various parts of the Atacama, even up into the Andes at 4,600 meters. We never could have seen all of these landscapes without the tour. However, I was glad that we didn't just sit in the car. We stopped frequently to do small hikes and explore the various sights, led by our guides who taught us about what we were seeing. We learned a lot and also got to meet some cool other travelers in our tour groups, such as Gloria and Marcel from British Columbia and Danelle from Australia.

So I know you're probably just ready for some pictures by now. Let it begin!

sun beginning to rise as we drive out to the lagoons

rising more (caption might not have been necessary on this one :)

Tropic of Capricorn marker

increasing altitude, vicuña on the slope

One of my favorite animals that we got to see was the vicuña, a type of small, high altitude camel. Their hearts are five times the size of a human heart, they can run 40km/hr, and their red blood cells are specially shaped to maximize oxygen. Also, they never drink water. Instead, they are able to get their water intake from eating tiny, tiny plants that grow in the soil.

We learned about how an alpha male controls a territory, and we saw two vicuñas fight over this. Our guide Manuel narrated, impressively knowing exactly what would happen in advance. The tail raised means they are going to fight. And then the big guy ran at the smaller one and reclaimed his territory. These animals really struck me as both cute and majestic. The alpaca is a domesticated version of a vicuña.

I kept saying how this felt like a Chilean safari, and I think that's pretty much what it was. As our guides played music in the car that was a style of traditional Andean instruments mixed with electronic music, it really felt like we were bopping along on an Andean safari. Well, a desert safari then an altiplanica safari, then an Andean safari, as we learned what the different altitude zones are called.

more vicuñas + a baby

Laguna Meñique surrounded by volcanoes

Ava and An and some of our new tour friends walking to the next lagoon

in the early morning, the light on the lagoon aligned perfectly with the shape of the surrounding volcanoes

little did we know we were in for a gourmet breakfast made by Manuel near the lagoon

Now, on to the second part of the tour.... Flamingos at the salt flats!

salt. flat. yup.

expansive, colorful, and flamingo-filled

There are two main types of flamingos found in the Atacama (as well as another rarer type). The Andean flamingo has a black tail whereas the Chilean flamingo has a pink tail. Also, I loved learning about what flamingos eat. I wondered what there possibly could be to eat in a highly salivated shallow lagoon. It turns out that they eat "sea monkeys," those little things that you can buy from kids' at-home science catalogs to grow in a small tank. Digesting these creatures results in the pink color in the feathers of the flamingos.

very social Andean flamingo who was unafraid of people

a cheesy photo of the Chilean flag flying in the salt flats with volcanoes and mountains surrounding

This was all just before lunch on Saturday! There will be more blogs coming, and I hope that you've enjoyed the photos. Of course, the photos never really capture the feel and scale, but I hope that it gives you a good taste or makes you want to go to the Atacama to see for yourself!