One of the most picturesque deserts in the world
I have said that I will never see a desert more beautiful than in Namibia in my life, however I think that Namibia has some competition. If you want to see the biggest salt flat in the world, Lakes with three different species of flamingos shuffling their beaks for food, colorful mountains with alpacas, llamas, and vicunas running around them, beautiful sunrises and sunsets peaking over the vast land, rolling valleys with little streams, and hot springs that steam all hours of the day and a beautiful red lake, then you need to visit this place. It was also used in the filming Star Wars Episode 8- The Last Jedi as the planet Crait.
Of course when going here, you must do the obligatory photos with other people that show different depths of field and doing different crazy things…
The train graveyard was interesting to see as it used to be used as a cargo train across this vast desert, however with it being so close to the town, it is often overrun with tourists all the time, but I was still able to get some interesting photos…
The salt flats are vast. You look for miles and you still cannot see the end of them, only a few small mountains dot this barren and endless landscape
Besides the beautiful salt flats I got a surprise Which was seeing my first culpeo which is an Andean fox most closely related to a wolf or Jackal. Another very interesting animal up on the altiplano was vizcacha which is an animal that resembles a long tailed rabbit.
I may have got the best photos of llamas, alpacas and Vicunas due to the great sun and backdrops in the area. A lot of them were wild but some were out to feed from local farms. They were decorated with beautiful colored ribbons and were always interested to see humans, some of them scared, others very relaxed..
One of the most beautiful parts of this land is the lakes that dot the landscape, most of them not freshwater and are instead salt water with different other minerals in them to give them either a red glow or make the water very reflective. With three of the worlds six Flamingo species found here- Chilean, Andean and James, they often feed on the plankton in the water and you can find them there going about their everyday business. With these three species, I have now witnessed out in the wild all of the worlds flamingo species!!!
Like I have mentioned, the landscape here was very diverse and you can notice in the rock formations and the scenery that it changes every hour. Parts of it looked like my hometown of El Paso, while other parts were very barren, while other parts were extremely colorful. If you want to see beautiful smoking geysers at sunrise, steamy pools with hot springs, as well as beautiful reflective pools with majestic mountains ahead of them, then this place is for you!!!
The photography in this place is wonderful, which is why I wanted to spend more time there and do the three day circuit again, the photography in this area is amazing and I did not get bored one day here as there was always something to see!!!! This is a place I will definitely come back to as there are more places to explore!!!