Yesterday when we arrived, we went and had a chat with a bloke at a tour agency that we’d booked a half day tour with for Friday. Knowing we had a car, he gave us some tips on what to see, and mentioned a trip down to Rio Grande, that doesn’t list on most agencies agendas. So off we went after picking up some sangers for lunch. It was just lovely, two tiny towns (Matancilla and Rio Grande) down a couple of picturesque valleys, with brilliant scenery in between.
We got most of the way down the first valley when the road was blocked by a tourist minibus buried to the axles. We stopped and walked after offering help. I must say walking at 3000 metres is a bit of a difference from sea level. Having lunch under what I guess were old mud volcano plugs (geos feel free to correct me – these things are damn near vertical, have scour marks on the outside, are mud and have lumps of native rock throughout them. They don’t align with the native stratigraphy). Whatever they were, they were spectacular. There is a bit of copper in the hills too.
Both valleys were lush oasis with rivers running through them contrasting against the stark arid desert (there is some vegetation up here, but only above about 3000m, where I think clouds add some water. They also had rain here a few weeks ago in a rare event with the “Bolivian winter” being much stronger and lasting a lot later than usual.
Back into town we went to visit an old 12th century native fort (Pukara de Quitor) that was one of the last strongholds against the Spanish. They fought them off a few times before the inevitable defeat, including the mass beheadings.
Golly, we just had a few spits of rain. That’s exciting.
At 18:00 we roused or mighty chariot again and went out to Valle de la Luna, which is just outside of town. We went in the far entrance only to find a locked gate, so we had to return and go in another. Unortunately that meant I was getting quite ate (the goal is to be on top of a sand dune at sunset). By the time we got in there wasn’t much time for looking around, so we just did the walk to the top and the specy views. We’ll come back and do the rest, it is very close by. Sunset was very pretty.
Hey it's a llama! I had to google. They have rounded ears and are larger than alpacas. Your trip is great - you are half way through now!!!
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