Dana International: Day 2 of the best trip ever ...the lakes

Monday 18 December 2006

Day 2 of the best trip ever ...the lakes

That night we stayed in dorms in a tiny town in the desert. There were a few houses, two shops and a massive clearing which had a small lake on it and was full of llamas and vicunas that were grazing. We were still at 3900m altitude. This makes for very cold nights - minus 15 on average - which isn't fun at the best of times, but not least when the showers are unisex, communal, outside and have no hot water or shower curtain! Even though I spent last night on a bus there is absolutely no way I’m braving that. Time to smell for a while then.

However if you look up into the sky it will not take long for you to forget the cold. Because it is so high up the night sky is amazing. The stars are so bright and so close it really does feel like you can reach up and touch them. Every single constellation is crystal clear. That night it was a full moon. It was so bright that it did not seem like night time outside. Our timing was impeccable. At about 9.30pm came the start of a full lunar eclipse. It took about two hours to completely cover. It really was amazing to see. We watched it through the binoculars which was just stunning. All agreed we could not have possibly been in a better place for it.

The next day took in more salt flats, mad bubbling geysers and the lakes. More weirdness. One was bright blue. The other was bright green. And the third was bright red. All three of them looked as if they were completely frozen. The fact that they were surrounded by white made the scene even more bizarre. I can't remember which chemicals makes them the colours that they are, but lets just say a swim in any of them would not be recommended.

The rest of the trip was driving through the desert. There are small sand dunes everywhere and mountains that look like they have been chopped in half - each of them revealing layer after layer of different coloured strata - beige, red, brown, cappuccino. There is virtually no green at all except for the odd tiny withered clump of straw in the earth every now and again. The only animals to be seen are the odd vicuna, but that's rare too. I am left with an image of a chocolate, coffee, mocha mountain overlooking a huge plain of red earth. In the middle of it is a vicuna trying to get what it can from the three stalks of yellow that are protruding from the ground. I wonder how on earth they survive with so little to eat. No wonder they are so thin.