The Altiplano, or Andean Plateau, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside of Tibet. Technically almost the entirety of it stricto sensu lies in Bolivia 50+ miles north of the Atacama (and none of it in the Atacama), but I adopt the name for the less extensive area of 13,000-15,000' basin floors, lagunas, volcanoes, lava flows, and volcaniclastic rocks similar in terrain if not scale. With my misnomer explanation out of the way, Day 4 ended up being a full stimulating day despite a few hiccups. My most comfortable sleep yet was truncated by an early start. After working through some emails at the first place of reception, I drove the San Pedro bypass to Laguna Cejar, tourist site of flamingos and a hypersaline laguna they let you swim in. Annoyingly I was turned away as they take online reservations only apparently (I tried day before and it did not work!). So that was frustrating but gave me a little more time before I needed to drive up a few thousand feet to the small town of Socaire. There I checked in for my reservation and was given an explanation of where to go. Leaving town I could not resist a quick roadside snap of their Colonial-era adobe church.
Onward I drove up the steep highway, well-maintained and with very few other vehicles. Apart from the road itself, it was an amazing drive with wonders everywhere. Exposures of peach-colored ignimbrite had neat boulder piles, huecos, and archways that demanded detours. Petite tufts of golden tussock spotted the plains for miles towards the horizons. Volcanic peaks visible in almost every direction.
Crossing a mini 13,000' plateau I turned off the highway and began the climb to Laguna Miscanti amd Laguna Miñiques. Both lagunas were scenic but somewhat busy and very controlled. Essentially you could only really visit a few viewpoints and could not get anywhere near the water where the good photos would be had. I could see flamingos at a distance through my monocular and clusters of vicuña (cute undomesticated relatives of alpacas and llamas) playfully dashing along the shoreline. The blues and greens of the waters were stunning and formed a neat contrast with the golden grasses and stark volcanic landscape surrounding them. After seeing all there was to see it was back to the highway for more incredible driving through a barren and beautiful landscapes.
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| Laguna Miscanti (and below) |
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| Laguna Miñiques (and below with vicuñas) |
I crossed through an interesting dry lake basin and past the south flanks of Volcán Miñiques. Everything felt vast and once again it was hard to gauge distances except when there were groupings of vicuñas dotting the landscape. After I crested the saddle into the Aguas Calientes basin I pulled over at the viewpoint for my first view of this creamy blue laguna.
At the bottom of the grade was my next destination, Piedras Rojas, one of those clearly Instagram famous selfie places with bright red rocks contrasting with creamy blue-green waters. Luckily I seemed to be off the tourist van schedule so everywhere I went there was usually only one couple, including here. I got out and strolled around the 1.5 mile trail, admittedly feeling the altitude a little. The fierce wind-generated chop somewhat marred the colors of the water but the textures and patterns in the rocks were nearly as captivating (frontispiece). Some of the best colors are an indescribable mix of blue and green I decided, and these came close. As you can see I did struggle to narrow down the photos at this picturesque place.
I continued up the road coming to one more nice overlook of Laguna Aguas Calientes on a slight rise above several of the spring sources.
Onward I passed more lagunas, colorful rocks, vicuñas, and some weird lumpy alpine cacti. I turned around after stopping at a neat cluster of rock formations northeast of Laguna Tayajto about 15 miles from the border with Argentina. Between the biting wind and the altitude I was definitely feeling it every time I got out of the car!
Being late in the day and with virtually no signs of civilization other than the ribbon of road, I did not see another car the entire drive back to Socaire! I frequently stopped in the middle of the pavement for a quick photo because why not. I caught a photo of some neat clouds like curly hair over Volcán Miñiques. I finally got some excellent closeups of vicuñas as they crossed the road. The first time I saw the road sign warning me to watch out for rhea I did a double-take thinking it was telling me to watch out for dinosaurs! When I later spotted a couple rhea (large ostrich-like birds) dashing across the landscape I still did a double-take thinking I saw dinosaurs. Flamingo closeups still eluded me. I had never driven such a well-maintained and simultaneously desolate and lonely road before in my life.
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| Volcán Miñiques |
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| Vicuña |
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| Here be...dinosaurs? |
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| Rhea |
I was surprised to find reception in Socaire so I used that to get organized. I decided I had enough gas to do a loop from Socaire to Laguna Lejía, then over to the north side of Volcán Láscar. Unfortunately there was not a bunch of daylight and would be cutting it close to get to a suitable campsite. Despite the enormous highway sign for the Socaire Road turnoff to Laguna Lejía, what I found was a sometimes rocky, rutted, loose road that I averaged about 20mph on. I was beginning to learn that some of Chile's highways are aspirational or at least have fallen into neglected disrepair. About halfway along this road after considerable time investment I came upon a pile of rocks across the road. Ugh!
I got out and looked and it seemed like some 2WD truck recently spun out in the loose material and after an epic struggle turned around and blocked the road with boulders. The tracks showed they did not go any further and it looked like the rocks were placed earlier in the day. It looked totally reasonable for AWD, although the truck tore the road up good. In most circumstances I would consider it fine to power on but solo, in a rental, this late in the day, and unknowing what I might run into next that could be worse, I didn’t want to tempt fate moving rocks only to get stuck alone. So I turned around unsure of what to do next. Only 0.5km down the road was a pullout of sorts next to a rock corral and surprisingly a little Socaire tower reception. After considerable decision paralysis that felt like ages, I decided to camp at this spot rather than try some unknown option. I got to enjoy some excellent golden light as the sun set and watch the shadows grow across the basin to finally engulf me. I went to bed that night without a clear plan but wanting to make the most of my remaining three full days in the Atacama, wanting to balance a good action packed trip without pushing my luck with car, safety, etc. This 12,000' camp was the coldest of my trip, and I found the wind more persistent here through the night.
Day 5: I woke up from my lofty vantage at 7am and drove down the rutted road to park next to the tower in Socaire to try to come up with a plan. After a lot of struggle I managed to plan out the next day (Geysers El Tatio, Termas de Puritama, Valle de la Luna) and though access info seemed to conflict, I realized the other road into Laguna Lejía (B-357) was in fact the much better road. I drove 25 miles north to where yet another enormous highway sign pointed the way to Laguna Lejía. I drove this freshly paved road about 6 miles...to a freshly locked gate across the highway (with the lock packaging carelessly tossed nearby!). I got a great view of Volcán Láscar smoking. It was unclear to me at this point what was going on but I suspected it had something to do with the town of Talabre just below. I began to turn down that way but it had a very unwelcoming look with a gate and fences that would close me in so I gave up and retreated back to San Pedro de Atacama for gas. Weighing my options I decided to check out Ruta-27, the Chilean highway that climbs steeply east of San Pedro, passing a Bolivian border crossing turnoff, then eventually crossing Paso de Jama into Argentina about 100 miles from San Pedro. As I left San Pedro the road climbed impressively from 8,000' to over !15,000'! up a single fan-graded apron of ignimbrite. This would be an absolutely terrifying road to be a semi-truck driver, of which there appeared to be many! On the way I drove within 6 miles of the summit of Volcán Licancabur, which towered overhead as a dark Mt Doom-esque peak. I passed the turnoff for the Bolivian border crossing and crossed through many flavors of starkly beautiful wind-swept volcanic landscapes. The colors were more vivid than the photos do justice and some of my favorite terrain was the hills that looked like they were melting. Other than the road and occasional cluster of vicuñas I did not see any reason why the terrain couldn't belong on Mars. This road was quite a bit busier than the previous day's but still I could stop for photos pretty much anywhere without having to worry about another car or truck.
I detoured 5 miles on a loose road with very steep sections that made me nervous but I managed. In several places I had to maintain speed going down a hill, keep it up across the sandy bottom, then floor it to keep going up the steep other side. The Subaru AWD and tires I had seemed to be just sufficient enough. Just south of Cerro El Chascón, I flew my drone over an area that seemed to be interesting on satellite images. Sure enough it was a neat landscape of creamy melty hills, dark volcanic peaks, and tropical green waters emerging from a spring at the base of the volcano. This was the highest elevation my drone probably will ever see at 16,000'! At this elevation it certainly behaved strange as it struggled to fight the thin air and maintain stationary positioning. I was impressed overall with its performance, but it moved with a drunken enthusiasm that made catching it out of the air a little scary.
Back on the main highway, I continued roadside touristing after my mini offroad adventure, frequently stopping for animals or volcanoes or lagunas. I finally got nice and close to vicuñas and also some flamingos. The roadside maze of springs, ponds, and meandering creek at Quebrada de Quepiaco made for some of my favorite wildlife viewing. In particular, watching the vicuñas lazily munching on aquatic grasses was a delight.
The scenery continued to be stunning. Every saddle or bend in the road brought new sights and at times I felt like I could barely go a couple kilometers before feeling to urge to stop and take more photos. Crossing out of the Salar de Pujsa basin, the road cut across its highest point and then descended back down into another area with interesting standing rock formations. Past this were several excellent views of the salt flats surrounding Laguna de Tara. The drone views were among the most varied I saw and once again it was difficult to narrow the selection down to a few pictures. The colors, contrasts, and reflections were all stellar.
At Salar de Loyoques I got my best flamingo closeup thus far (soon to be usurped by the ones I saw the following day). I drove to within 4 miles of the Argentina border and called it a day, but not without more stops on the drive back.
I spotted a spur road with many fresh tire tracks near the rock pillar area and decided to investigate. This ended up being a great little detour allowing me to get up close to a few of the more prominent tors (isolated pillared rock outcrops). The most prominent pillar I nicknamed Sundial Rock, the long shadow it cast both a reminder of its height and the day nearing its end. I am sure this area would be a neat one to explore further.
Overall there was remarkably little traffic on the highway, most of it being semitrucks delivering goods internationally. I got one last nice closeup view of Volcán Licancabur as I drove down the steep grade adjacent to it, then drove to the southern outskirts of San Pedro de Atacama.
I ended up at Andes Nomad Camp in the untouristy small settlement of Cucuter. It was fairly quiet with only a few other campsites taken, Starlink internet, warm shower, cold pool, electricity at my site, communal refrigerator, sketchy tower to climb, and a place to ditch my accumulated trash. The only downside is it was quite a dusty place. Otherwise it was a steal at $11 a night and ended up being my no-nonsense basecamp for the rest of the trip. My campsite had a particularly stunning sunset view of Volcán Licancabur framed by desert vegetation.
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