Lagoons and Germans

I didn't exactly sleep fantastically on the first night, but was looking forward to the second day, which was meant to have more highlights than the first day, and involve considerably less driving.

We were the first jeep to leave the hotel, which meant we were the first to break the ice on a number of the crossings. Whilst I had a lot of faith in our driver, there were some moments where a Jeep evacuation plan did cross my mind.

The row of jeeps crossing behind us (only at the start of the day were we really in such a big group, the cars got spaced out quite quickly)

Just after this crossing we came across a rather frantic man waving our jeep down seeking help. With our driver speaking no English i was recruited into German to Spanish translation role, and managed to communicate that this German chap had no battery left in his van, but had jump leads, and wanted us to help start his car. After about 10 minutes, his ancient van jumped to life (brought from Germany) and it was high-fives all round.

I should point out that we really were in the middle of nowhere here - it had been at least 8 hours since we were last on a road and 2 hours since we were in the small settlement where we had spent the night.

First frozen lagoon of the day

Driving through the desert

The food on the trip was generally pretty impressive considering that it was all brought with us from Tupiza. Breakfast was just bread and coffee but we had a warm lunch (which our cook would have got up at 5am to cook for us) which was generally rice and meat or veg. There was afternoon tea everyday when we arrived at the hotel and another warm meal for dinner. The cook was even more impressive considering that we had a vegetarian and a no-gluten member in the group!

Geysers. I stepped near one and got volcanic stuff all over my new shoes.

Volcano and lagoon. This is the spot where we stopped to have our lunch.

Red lagoon

The accommodation on the second night was a fraction better than the first. Still basic, but there was a wood-heater in the dining room that was on for a couple of hours. The temperature in the night was still around minus 10 though. The evening was generally quite relaxed, playing card games with intermittent breaks to go put more layers on.