We arrived in Tupiza at night and stayed in La Torre hostel, which is also the tour we were planning to take. It took us 2 days just going from Iguazu to Tupiza, so we were really hoping to get on a tour right away the next morning! We woke up super early the next morning and went to talk to the people who are in-charge of the tours. They were able to set us up for the tour right away!!! The usual leaving time is 8am, and we left a little later because they need to get everything ready, like food, gas, etc. Depending on how many people are in the tour, the price is different, the more people, the cheaper it is per person. The maximum number of people is 5 per tour because the Jeep only has so much space. We get a driver and a cook (he prepares breakfast, lunch and dinner with the food we brought along) for the tour, and the driver is also the tour guide if you understand Spanish. If you don't, you can pay a little extra to get a tour guide who speaks English to come along. There are places for us to stay every night, and some with showers and electricity, some don't. Whenever you get a chance, charge your camera and shower!
Day 1
We climbed up to almost 5000 meters!!! I had to walk really slowly to have enough oxygen to breath. The locals have an altitude remedy called cocoa leaves that can help with the headaches if you have mild altitude sickness. You can make tea with the leaves or just chew the leaves directly. We saw some of mother nature's creations and some old forgotten villages. Llama are just EVERYWHERE!! When we first saw them, we all kept clicking our cameras, but after a couple hours of llamas everywhere, we got used to them. lol
Day 2
We first went to Sol de mañana, which is full of boiling muds, sulfur springs field and small little volcanoes. You can walk between the mud spots and experience the sulfur smell and bubbling mud. It was pretty cool. Then we went to Laguna Kollpa (the soap lake), geyser, Laguna Verde. Laguna Verde, the green lake, is located at the Chilean border under the volcano Licancabur (Almost 6000m). The color of the lake is due to the mineral suspension and can vary from turquoise to dark emerald depending on the wind. Apparently, if there is no wind, you won't be able to see the color. (Some nature magic!!) We went to 2 different lakes (Laguna Colorada and Laguna Cañapa) with thousands of flamingos! The lakes are just sooooooooooo pretty that I can't believe they exist!!
