{"id":1377,"date":"2015-06-10T12:32:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T11:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2015-06-10T13:49:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T12:49:41","slug":"2015-04-30-altiplano-tour-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/?p=1377","title":{"rendered":"2015-04-30: Altiplano Tour (1\/2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tour operator of the Altiplano Tour picked me up at around 5 AM when it was still dark.<\/p>\n

First we would go to Toconao, and take a look at the local church there. Remarkable there was a stair case build from Cactus wood. Also a door in the bell tour was build from Cactus wood, and strapped with sinew from Lamas to its frame.<\/p>\n

Then we would make our way to Laguna Chaxa where flamingos are patently filtering the salty water for plankton and little crabs. The feathers of young flamingos are grey — it is the crabs in their diet which gives the flamingos their pink appearance.<\/p>\n

Even though used to human presence, they are timid animals, and I found them relatively difficult to photograph.<\/p>\n

Before leaving Laguna Chaxa, we had a good breakfast.\u00a0 This is were I made acquaintance the of Nina and Maren from B\u00f6blingen. Nina travels for a year to see the world, while Maren was merely visiting for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

The next stop was at Socaire. There, we visited another church. Nearby, there were some Inca style terraces where corn is grown.<\/p>\n

We then continued on into thin air to Laguna Miscanti. There, my GPS read 4350 m elevation, and a mild feeling of dizziness set in. As long as one does not exerts himself physically, everything is fine.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, I went to the archaeological museum of father Gustavo Le Paige, a Belgian Priest, who lived in San Pedro de Atacama, and founded a huge collection of artefacts produced by ingenious people. The Atacama is dry, so nothing decomposes. It is\u00a0 inhabited at least since 500 A.D. by the Atacama people\u00a0 — there are probably many more things to find.<\/p>\n

In addition to Maren and Nina, I met Julie from France who turned out to be an avid flamingo photographer, and Maurice from Grenoble during the day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Toconao<\/h1>\n

Taconao has tidied up main plaza (plaza de armas), and a little church in colonial style.<\/p>\n

\"Toconao:<\/a>
Toconao: Colonial Style Church in the Rising Morning Sun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Toconao:<\/a>
Toconao: Interior of Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Taconao:<\/a>
Taconao: Stair Case in Church build from Cactus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Toconao:<\/a>
Toconao: Bell Tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Toconao:<\/a>
Toconao: Door of Bell Tower made from Cactus and from Lama Sinews<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Laguna Chaxa<\/h1>\n

Besides stalking flamingos, Laguna Chaxa offers a view that is outerworldly. Maybe such a torn\u00a0 landscape is not so seldom on this planet. I, at least, have never seen something like this before. And I lucky enough I managed to snap a couple of picture of\u00a0 Flamingo in flight.<\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Salt Deposit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Salt Layer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Landscape<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Rusty Looking Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Salt Water Lake with Mountains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flamingos stalking around<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: 2 Resting Flamingos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Two Flamingos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flamingo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flamingo Taking Off<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flamingo Airborne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flamingo Airborne Skimming over the Surface of the Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flying Flamingo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flying Flamingo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Flying Flamingo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Aquarium in the Desert. It serves as a Showcase for the Salt Water of the Laguna with little Crabs in it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/a>
Laguna Chaxa: Myself in this Strange Landscape<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tour operator of the Altiplano Tour picked me up at around 5 AM when it was still dark. First we would go to Toconao, and take a look at the local church there. Remarkable there was a stair case build from Cactus wood. Also a door in the bell tour was build from Cactus … Continue reading 2015-04-30: Altiplano Tour (1\/2)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1488,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions\/1488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}