2nd May - Geysers at Dawn, Hot Springs and a Green Lake

June 10, 2013

We left the lodge at 5.00 in the morning, driving out in to the dark past the Laguna Colorada, heading south towards Chile.
Just before dawn we could make out the shape of steam billowing and mixing with the frosty air. We had reached the geothermic area of Sol de Manana or morning sun, very appropriate.
We were up at 4580m so it was pretty nippy. We were given the customary twenty minutes to look around and I set up my tripod.
The sky was reddening in the distance and I got some pictures of the general area and a geyser (although apparently not a geyser according to Wikipedia but a bore hole in the geothermal field). Mairi posed in front of the 'not a geyser' but Naomi came in a bit late and hadn't realised that I had asked Mairi to stand still for a long exposure.

The sun was coming up fast as we drove off and headed for some more steam and hot springs past some beautiful mountains catching the warm early light.

There was a lot of activity round the hot springs where a pool had been made for bathing. Again we had been allocated twenty minutes so I made the decision to immerse myself in the location, rather than the water. We were by the side of a lake, Laguna Polkes. There was frost on the ground and a little bird life on the lake, although I only spotted one lonely flamingo. The tussocks of golden grass and the rising steam glowed.

By the time we were leaving dawn had disappeared and the steam was diminishing.

We were in the Toyota for quite some time, travelling past coloured mountains that Pauli said we would stop at on the way back. Laurent, one of our fellow travellers was leaving us for the Chilean border and he had to get there by a certain time to catch his bus.

Finally the countryside opened up and the Laguna Verde came in to view. The name means 'green lake', but Pauli told us that since an earthquake in Chile in 1980 it has turned more blue than green. Another explanation I read was that it turns green when the wind disturbs the surface, it was calm when we were there. Pauli dropped us off on the side of the lake and headed for Chile with Laurent. We would have forty minutes to soak in the atmosphere.

There was a tall shingle bank on the lake side of the road, for it was a road now although not surfaced. The occasional truck came along but very infrequently. There were no other people there and it suddenly seemed very remote. A high, conical volcano, Licancabur, overlooked the lake. At 5950m Licancabur (meaning 'Mountain of the People'), straddles the Bolivia/ Chile border, although the summit is in Chile. It is an active volcano but has had no major eruption in the last 500-1000 years. It was worshipped by the Incas and the cone contains a lake which is one of the highest in the world.

Laguna Verde is full of minerals and is separated by a narrow bank of salt from its neighbour Laguna Blanca. I could make out on the far shore a building and some trucks that looked as if they were harvesting some of the minerals, although it was a pretty low key affair.

Having now got the time, I set up the tripod and made a couple of panoramas of the mountains that were showing their colours in the sun.