Chile North

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Parque Lauca
Reserva Natural Las Vicunas
​Parque Volcan Isluga
​Parque Laguna de Huasco

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The two main lakes in Lauca National Park revolve around Volcano Parinacota (20,900ft). I arrived here at dawn, driving overnight from the city of Iquique

The line of volcanoes to the north of Parinacota that cannot be seen from Laguna Chungara. I hiked out through the dried out patches where Laguna Cotacotani used to exist. Both lakes have been drained to some extent.

Route 11 from Arica to Parque Lauca is the truck route to Bolivia, many broken down semis on the road

Once leaving the main highway there is no longer any traffic.  While the roads had towns listed on the map, they seemed abandoned and I saw very few people.  The route I took started in Parque Lauca and ended at Laguna de Huasco, camping along the way near the car in the evenings.

There were hot springs along the route which were marked on the map I purchased at the airport in Santiago.  Some were too warm but had side pools with the right temperature.  These areas I found to be good campgrounds as the temperature drops at 14,000 feet when the sun goes down.

The mornings were clear in March with afternoon showers and awesome skies at sunset almost every evening. March is the end of rainy season and I lucked out with fairly good weather

I saw a tourist at Salar de Surire during the day. There was also a policeman here in the afternoon manning the station to the north. When asked my plans he told me camping was not allowed, that I would need to stay at the refugio on the south side. After sunset I drove to the refugio and it was locked with no one around. Apparently the refugio being open is hit and miss and a man told me that bikers once left a note here "Sorry for the broken window" as they were counting on the shelter for the night

The most beautiful section of road was through Parque Volcan Isluga

Winding road

There were many animals on the hikes... the fast running lesser rhea, a flightless bird that lives here in the altiplano and further south in Patagonia

The Southern viscacha, looks like a rabbit with a large bushy tail (cut off in the photo)

The vicuna, not to be mistaken for the guanaco

There are three species of flamingos in the altiplano although I found it difficult to distinguish between the types

Flamingos getting a running start at Laguna de Huasco.  They are a difficult bird to photograph as they appear to have heightened senses for humans approaching their direction

Cerro Dragon above the city of Iquique.  The road here from the altiplano in the east drops 14,000 feet over less than a hundred miles.  

I started and finished the trip at the Iquique airport, while no rental car company offered extra gas tanks with their trucks, they were easy to find at almost every Copec gas station in Iquique and Arica.  Mall Zofri in the north of town has shops that carry fuel canisters.  I bought two 20L tanks and filled up in Arica before starting the loop and had no trouble getting back to Iquique