Continuing along our 4×4 journey of Bolivia we had a stop in the desert waiting for another car to catch up. It was a pretty nice viewpoint to see some of the volcanoes that dotted the landscape.
A few birds came by to investigate as well.
It had been snowing a lot so instead of just brown topped peaks they were covered with fresh snow.
Unlike the salt these cracks are not even hex spaced but random.
It was getting cold so we were starting to bundle up to keep warm.
Leaving the salt flats took us to a different landscape of Bolivia.
Even though this looks flat it was not as comfortable as the salt flats and was much more bumpy going until we got to Chile.
The emptiness was far different from what we had seen so far on the trip. Other than our travel companions we only saw people at the lunch and sleeping spots.
We had been driving for quite a long time through uniform landscapes when all of a sudden these rock formations appeared. This is the stone tree, it looks a little more tree like from another angle but that angle had far too many people in the way.
It is an oddly eroded piece of rock amongst other rock in the middle of the flat valley. To the left is desert dunes and to the right volcanoes and mountains. The wind was very strong and with all the sand around it slowly gets sandblasted. The softer bits will disappear more quickly and the harder rock is left behind to leave these odd twisting shapes.
In some cases the rocks just split and fell over leaving very flat surfaces that are sheltered from the wind.
While we were here snow started falling and even with the strong cold wind Kerri was still trying to catch snow flakes. It was done facing the wind as nothing was coming straight down.
Our next stop was a very pretty lagoon.
Actually several pretty lagoons which all blended together.
They had more flamingos!
And lots of snow capped mountains.
The flamingos were not very pink.
But there were lots of them.
They are still funny looking birds.
With weird beaks.
Which they used to eat stuff off the bottom of the lagoon.
And then their beaks dripped mud.
They did have a few very pink feathers on their shoulders.
And on their bums.
They are long fluffy feathers.
They also have weird knobby backward knees.
Their feathers poof up in the wind.
Which makes them look even funnier.
Though they’re pretty funny looking even when they aren’t poofed.
But they look especially funny when flying.
With their feet sticking out behind them.
And their chubby bellies hanging down.
And when they turn they bank sideways.
And you can see the undersides of their wings, which are also nice and pink.
They lower their legs as they land.
Sometimes one leg at a time.
And stretch out their funny looking feet.
Toward the water.
And kind of run along the surface.
Walking on water
But they sink as they slow down.
Sometimes they land on the sand.
They walk on it too, but that is less impressive.
You don’t need to be able to fly to walk on sand.
Anybody can do it.
Without even getting their feet wet.
The lagoon also had a few other kinds of birds.
But they weren’t even a little bit pink, so who cares?
And there weren’t as many of them as there were flamingos.
Kerri wanted to stand like a flamingo.
Flamingos need to move someplace warmer though as Kerri isn’t as much a fan of the freezy cold lagunas in which they live.
