The Bolivian Altiplano offers spectacularly colourful lagoons and breathtakingly lunar landscapes. Each stop you make is yet another picture of shapes and gorgeous colours, filled with the local fauna.
One scenery, however, struck me with beauty: the Laguna Negra (4.100 m), Potosí, Bolivia.
We planned a three-week honeymoon a year into our marriage to turn this journey into something adventurous. The kind of experience you want to arrange while you are still young and travelling without a baby or toddler.
Our 5-day road trip to the Andes Mountains was the most adventurous experience I had thus far.
I had never been at altitude, except for a short school trip to Chamonix when I was eleven. 1035 metres above sea level is not what one can call high altitude.
It is not without fear that I embarked on a 5-day out-of-this-world road trip from the Bolivia–Chile border in San Pedro de Atacama (above 4,000 m), driving through the altiplano landscapes, to the world’s largest salt flats of Uyuni (3.656 m).
Unfortunately, the up to 4.500-metre expeditions we tried before the road trip in the Atacama Desert did not prevent me from feeling sick on the first day when reaching the peak of our drive: the Sol de Mañana geysers (5.000 m).
I was, however, able to enjoy the rest of our road trip, as the journey took us on a slow descent to various locations throughout the Andean Plateau.
The Laguna Negra was one of our last stops before we were taken to admire a breathtaking sunrise at the Salar Uyuni.
The Laguna Negra is a dark-toned, dark-water lagoon surrounded by massive volcanic rocks and nestled near the Valle de las Rocas.
I let myself be taken under the spell of this mysterious—almost mystical—oasis you reach by foot, wondering green expanses of greenery and moose in the middle of llamas.
A magical and peaceful landscape where you can admire the reflection of orange cliffs of petrified lava and rocks in the black waters of the lagoon, lulled by the sound of the wind!
The contrast of colours is stunning.
An enchanted mirror on the Bolivian Altiplano.
A very poetic parenthesis to end our fabulous encounter with the Pachamama.
