On Saturday night we took the night bus from San Pedro de Atacama to Arica in the north of Chile. It was a long ride but we arrived quite early in Arica so we have been able to get the local bus at 7am to Putre close to the Altiplano. In Putre we went strait to the Cali Hostal and got a basic room for approx. 10 Euros there. The next step was to find an agency for our tours to the Altiplano - Lago Chungara, Salar Suire and of corse the twin Vulcanos of Paniracota and Pomerape. Finally we got to Tour Andino and Justino made us a great offer for two day-trips starting immediately with the area around Poeplo de Paniracota.
On the way we saw a lot of andian animals like Vizcachas (small rabits), Lamas, Alpacas and their relatives the Vicunias. The landscape up there was breathtaking and we enjoyed the time hiking around the Lagunas de Cotacotani.
On the second day we did a tour together with Danielle and Amaury, a couple which we met in S. Pedro, to the Salar de Surie and the Lauca Nationalpark. On this day we got great weather again and Justino told us a lot about the Aymara culture and the life up there at the Altiplano. On this journey we made lots of great photos and did an hike at the Salar de Surie with lots of Flamencos, other birds and of corse Vicunias again.
On the last day, Tuesday, we just decided to stay a day longer and join the tour to the north of Danielle and Amaury again and it was defiantly not the wrong decision :-) On this day we drove with another driver from Justino to the north and up there we found a great landscape with again, breathtaking and colorful views. We went up to almost 5.000m and have seen a lot of old volcanos up there and we also found some gold and silver! On the way back we have been able to see the twin Volcanos Parinacota and Pomerape from a different angle and could enjoy a lovely sunset on this last day at the altiplano.
Wednesday was the day to say good bye to the altiplano and we had to hitchhike the Pullman bus to La Paz. We just had to wait an hour and the bus ride to La Paz was not too bad, except that we had to change the bus close to the border. We finally arrived at 6:30pm in La Paz and will stay here for the next 4 nights at the Hostal Arcabucero Hostal Inn.