Volcanoes, Up Close and Personal

Thursday 1 September 2016 

As we had been up so early, there was still plenty of time to do something else, so when we got back to San Pedro de Atacama we headed out to another Lagoon in the Altiplano, Laguna Lejia. Again we found ourselves on something that resembled more of a llama track than a road, but as all things here in the high Andes, the discomfort caused by the difficult driving conditions were completely offset by the simply stunning scenery. As we headed up, we became engulfed by volcanoes, some of which were still smoking. When we had been to Ecuador, the Pan-American highway south of the capital Quito is known as the “avenue of the volcanoes” – but here we were surrounded by them, right up close and personal – it felt more like a volcano super-highway!

The trip to the Laguna was really isolated, we hadn’t seen a car all day and as we approached the lake there was more and more snow and some patches even covered the road – we feared that our little Hyundai might get into trouble. Note to self – next time we head out into the wilderness we probably should tell the hotel where we’re going just in case they need to send out a search party.

The laguna is completely surrounded by volcanos, and at around 4,400 metres it was something to behold. With the wind up and the temperature hovering around zero, we took a quick walk to the edge of the lake and then decided to head back to the warmth of the car. Trevor had been interested to check out an extinct volcanic crater a couple of kilometres down the road, but as it had been a relatively long day and we really were in the middle of nowhere, we decided not to push our luck, so backtracked the way we came in. Again, the drive back was pretty rugged and we had to take it slowly – but the views were awesome.