FLAMINGOS AND ANCIENT LAGOONS

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I wake up from a terrible nightmare, which appears to be one of the effect of the altitude. “Take an Aspirin in the morning, and one at night. drink Coca Tea and eat dark bitter Chocolate”, we are told.

It’s only 5:00 am, time to get up. The tour bus will pick us up at 6:00 to take us to the Flamingo reserve.
There are 12 other passengers, two young girls from Germany and the rest from France.
It is still dark and all I know is that we are driving south, climbing to an altitude of 4,100 meters.
As we arrive at the Flamingo reserve the sun is just coming up behind the mountains behind us. As if they arranged for a show for this tour group. Flamingos are busy feeding on the tiny brine shrimp in the salty lagoon.

Millions of years ago, Chile did not exist, it was all ocean. As the Andean mountains rose, a pool of water got trapped between these and the costal range. Most of this water has evaporated, but water from the previous glaciers, the Andes and the underground thermals seeping through, cause this shallow pool of water of 3,0000 square kilometers to remain. Although 95% evaporates every year, and the cycle continues.

The salt crust is more than 1500 meters deep, with underneath a salty brine.
It provides 40% of the worlds Lithium reserve, used for batteries etc. The pink colour of the flamingos are from these minerals.
As we walk the long trail we see the Chilean Flamingos, which are all pink and the Andean Flamingos, which have black wings.

It’s interesting to learn, that Flamingos lay only two eggs each year. Once only will hatch. The baby will feed from the other egg as well as by other flmaingos. Not necesarily its own parents. Other than the Flamingos there are the Andean Avocet, which also feed and breed here.

As we return to the tiny brick building, breakfast has been spread out. We are recommended to drink some Coca tea to minimize the effects of the altitude.
As the sun rises we start feeling very lethargic and lightheaded.

Our guide is very knowledgable and explains so much about all aspects of the Atacama region. “Walk slowly he tells us and breath slowly and deeply”. It will take you a day or so to get used to the effects of the altitude.
We’ll be going higher yet, to 4,500 meters, but this one hour break helps us adjust.

We continue with the van to two beautiful Lagoons, filled with glacier water and water from the springs. Miscanti is the larger one. Here we see the Vicuña, the forefather of the Llama and Alpaca. Other animals here are the fox  and several species of birds.

Over a dirt road we turn,  farther into the desert, to the community of Socaire. A nother pre Inca village build with adobe blocks. A hot lunch was arragned for on the way up and is wonderful. This is the time we get to know our fellow passengers better and learn more from our guide about the history of the village, with less than 200 inhabitants.

On our way back we visit Toconao. On the edge of town we see the large terraces where vegetables are grown. The only way anything would grow here was to collect the melting water from the mountains, build tiny canals along the edge of the mountains and allow the water to seep from one level to the next. This technology was developed by a very intelligent pre Inca Tribe.

As we return to our cabin, we are very tired and both have a giant headache. We recall the suggested remedies and before we take a nap, we swallow some aspirin, eat some chocolate and drink Coca tea.