{"id":6158,"date":"2015-02-24T14:21:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T13:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/?p=6158"},"modified":"2020-12-19T14:40:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T13:40:24","slug":"the-atacama-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/2015\/02\/24\/die-atacama-lebt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Atacama is alive!"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Day tour to the Piedras Rojas<\/li>\n<li>Stop at the wonderful Miscanti and Miniques mountain lagoons<\/li>\n<li>Watching flamingos in Laguna Chaixa<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>A little later than yesterday - but still too early - we start today at 7 a.m. As luck would have it, we are on the road again with Guide Caesar. Soon the tour bus is full and we drive for a while in a south-easterly direction towards our first destination. The entertaining troop consisting of Chileans, Spaniards and us provide entertainment. In a small town there is a simple but <b>delicious breakfast<\/b> to us.<\/div>\n<p><img data-opt-id=15328113  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6162\" src=\"https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24.jpg\" alt=\"2015_02_24\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:1170\/h:658\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:600\/h:337\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div>The lonely landscape is overgrown with dense, straw-like grass and is isolated by <b>Vicu\u00f1as and rheas<\/b> inhabited. Continuously but leisurely, the road climbs to over 4300 meters above sea level, from where we see our destination for the first time: the <b>Laguna Aguas Calientes<\/b> with the surrounding <b>Piedras Rojas<\/b>. As the name suggests, the lake is surrounded by special red rocks. The entire environment is reflected in the shallow, mirror-smooth lagoon. After the obligatory photos and enjoying this wonderful place, we drive on.<\/div>\n<p><img data-opt-id=873885310  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6159\" src=\"https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24_1.jpg\" alt=\"2015_02_24_1\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:1170\/h:658\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24_1.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:600\/h:337\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24_1.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div>The next goal of the tour is the <b>Altiplano lagoons Miscanti and Miniques<\/b>. Located slightly lower down and embedded in bright yellow tufts of grass, the <b>wonderful blue<\/b> Mountain lakes are a great subject. In addition, there are several in the background <b>Volcanic cone<\/b> raise. It would be even nicer here in spring when the mountains are still covered with snow. Some water birds can be seen, including three lone flamingos.<\/div>\n<p><img data-opt-id=1426234068  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6161\" src=\"https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24_3.jpg\" alt=\"2015_02_24_3\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:1170\/h:658\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24_3.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/mlnnzcgf0rm9.i.optimole.com\/w:600\/h:337\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015_02_24_3.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div>Back at the restaurant, a local lunch awaits our hungry stomachs. Moving on to my real highlight of the trip. In the middle of the <b>brooding hot<\/b> <b>Salar de Atacama<\/b> lies the shallow <b>Laguna Chaixa<\/b>which is part of the Los Flamencos National Reserve. As the name suggests, there are numerous here <b>Chile flamingos<\/b> observed while feeding from a short distance. It is wonderful how the entire environment is again reflected in the clear salty water.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>We make a last short stop in the village\u00a0<b>Toconao<\/b> a, where a simple village church in the typical architectural style of the region can be visited. Around 6 a.m. we are back in San Pedro, where we say goodbye to the other tour participants.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Now we have to buy supplies for our three-day Uyuni tour and talk to our new roommate. A young woman from Zurich with travel plans similar to ours.<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Day tour to the Piedras Rojas<\/li>\n<li>Stop at the wonderful Miscanti and Miniques mountain lagoons<\/li>\n<li>Watching flamingos in Laguna Chaixa<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/br><\/p>\n<div>A little later than yesterday - but still too early - we start today at 7 a.m. As luck would have it, we are on the road again with Guide Caesar. Soon the tour bus is full and we drive for a while in a south-easterly direction towards our first destination. The entertaining troop consisting of Chileans, Spaniards and us provide entertainment. In a small town there is a simple but <b>delicious breakfast<\/b> to us.<\/div>\n<p><\/br><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,820,1032,1299],"tags":[1319,906,1034,1300,1301,1302,1309,1310,1311,1312,1313,1314,1315,1316,1317,1318],"class_list":["post-6158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tagebuch","category-suedamerika","category-chile","category-atacama","tag-toconao","tag-nandu","tag-chile","tag-san-pedro-de-atacama","tag-atacama-connection-tours","tag-atacama","tag-piedras-rojas","tag-vikuna","tag-laguna-aguas-calientes","tag-laguna-miscanti","tag-laguna-miniques","tag-salar-de-atacama","tag-chile-flamingo","tag-flamingo","tag-laguna-chaixa","tag-los-flamingos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marcelgross.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}