The second day of the tour started with an early 7am departure. Most of us enjoyed a relaxed night with a few drinks and were in bed reasonably early. Our driver however wasn’t so chipper. It seemed he had enjoyed many drinks with his fellow drivers and was still drunk as he climbed onto the roof of the 4WD to load the bags.
However having no choice but to get into the car and continue on, that’s what we did. Our driver started to come more to life after and hour or so, and so did the road – or lack of road to be more correct. Road were non-existent on day two and we mainly traveled on paths worn into the ground by the continuous 4WDs that pass through. It was a bumpy ride and without seatbelts many times we had to hold on to anything we could.
We reached the first of the lakes where we stopped for lunch. The view was spectacular.
After lunch we drove up to our highest altitude of the trip, 5000m above sea level, and unfortunately it began to rain. The amazing rock formations that we were supposed to get out and walk around were only viewed from the car, none of us were interested in getting saturated for the sake of a photo.
Back in the car again we drove over rocks and sand, through hills and valleys, the environment continuously changing, often times looking like we were on an alien planet.
Then….the car broke down.
In the middle of no where the fuel pump decided to not work and the car sputtered to a halt. “La bomba, la bomba,” our driver kept saying as we gringos with no mechanical experience whatsoever offered token pieces of advice. In the middle of a high altitude desert we had a driver with no mechanical knowledge and no one to assist. Luckily, there are many 4WDs taking the same route and we only needed to wait a 1/2 hour until another car came by that we could flag down.
After tinkering with the fuel pump and wrapping some cloth around something in the engine, we were good to go again….until 15 minutes later when the car again broke down.
Assisted once again by the driver 10 minutes behind us, and assured that he would follow us and we would reach our destination that was still 5 hours away, we continued on.
Fortunately despite many stutters, a couple of near misses with other vehicles and a million bumps in the road we made it to the entrance of Laguna Colorada.
Looking like an alien planet the entrance to Laguna Colorada is actually a national park. Here we needed to pay 150 Bolivianos each (not included in the tour price) and hold on to our ticket until we crossed the border into Chile the following day. The weather was cold and as we drove around to the spectacular Colorada Lake everyone pulled out their beanies and gloves.
Laguna Colorada is one of the most spectacular places I have ever been. Green moss covered rocks being grazed on by multi-coloured alpacas with beautiful pink, purple and blue water inhabited by flamingos in the background, Laguna Colorada is picturesque.
We were able to spend about an hour here taking photos in multiple locations and by the time we were done, my nose was frozen.
A short distance from here was our accommodation for the night. Very basic with only one working toilet, barely any electricity and definitely no wifi, we enjoyed tea and biscuits on arrival and spaghetti for dinner.
With the lights switched off at 10pm and our 5:30am departure looming, everyone opted for an early night to be ready for our final day.
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