Lake Miscanti and Miniques

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San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

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Lagunas Miscanti y Miñiques Photo - Lake Miscanti and Miniques, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

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High – but shallow - Waters

by SeenThat

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel

May 2, 2011

Best of IgoUgo Attractions are relative to their location. Few travelers would travel especially to Mae Hong Son to see the breathtaking pond at its center. It may be beautiful, but water in Thailand is not news. Put a slightly larger body of water at the fringe ...Read more Attractions are relative to their location. Few travelers would travel especially to Mae Hong Son to see the breathtaking pond at its center. It may be beautiful, but water in Thailand is not news. Put a slightly larger body of water at the fringe of the driest desert on Earth and its wonders would be advertised worldwide.

To the pre-colonial Atacameños, the pond – the main body of water in this vast desert – was a wonder. However, to anyone having seen an ocean, a sea, or even an average lake, the pool is unimpressive, though the mountains surrounding it are pretty. Deep lakes in high locations – like Gokyo in the Everest area and Lake Titicaca on the Andean High Plateau - can offer awesome views due to their odd deep blue color. Yet shallow ponds offering dry salt rings on their fringes give a sense of standing next to a dirty bathtub. Moreover there is something eerie on a lake which is not surrounded by vegetation, where the only obvious form of life is transient travelers. Nowhere the claims of the Atacama Desert being sterile are more obvious than here. Thus the traveler in the area is advised to carefully consider this trip, especially if planning to continue the trip into Bolivia, where the Lagunas Verde y Colorada (the Red and Green Lakes) offer better views. The lakes are rather far from San Pedro de Atacama, about 115 kilometers to its southeast, and thus are best approached by tours booked at the town.

Yet, if reaching them, the traveler would be rewarded by the unusual beauty of the Miscanti and Miñiques lakes. Roughly 4000 meters above the Pacific Ocean, they are surrounded by conic summits, and are visited by flamingos carried up the range by hot winds. Later on, the birds get trapped in the Bolivian lakes across the mountains. Laguna Miscanti – the largest between the two lakes – is just on the eastern border of the Salar de Atacama, a large salt flat on the base of a now dried up lake. Just south of this lake – and almost part of it – is the very small Laguna Miñiques. These three should be considered as one body of water of changing shape, as so many others around the world, and a reminder that this desert was in the far past much more alive. Next to the Miscanti Lake is the perfectly shaped Miscanti Volcano; without its iconic shape, this visit couldn’t have been justified. Blue, cloudless skies are interrupted by this brownish cone, which rests atop the blue waters of a shallow lake. The last ends meters from your feet, giving room to more browns. Blue, brown, blue, brown, where were my beloved greens?

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From journal Driest Desert III

Lake Miscanti and Miniques

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High – but shallow - Waters