Salar de Atacama

This place was amazing. Unlike any place I've ever seen before. A short drive from San Pedro de Atacama...Chris and I decided to visit Laguna Chaxa on our way back from San Pedro, on the way back to Iquique. Once again- that fucking travel book that I had, made this place sound like something completely different than what it was- nonetheless, still a great surprise. From the book, it sounded like it was still an actual lake, something that we might be able to swim in. We pictured a nice  lake, that we could swim in and catch a tan for a couple of hours before our long drive back to the coast (which is why we wore our bikinis to the lake). We arrive- laughing- because, once again, that fucking travel book decided to surprise us with something totally different than what it had described. We arrive to find a landscape that was unlike any place I'd ever seen. The lake was dried up and left behind huge salt deposits. A site to see. They have carved out paths for you to walk down, to be able to better explore this interesting salt flat lake. Parts of the lake still had water in it- where you can see wild flamingos wading in the water. Definitely something you wouldn't expect to see out in the middle of the desert...actually- it was quite strange to see wild flamingos in the middle of the Chilean desert at a half dried up salt flat lake. A great site- but wish they made the path a little closer to where the flamingos wade in the water...i guess so as to not disturb them in their natural(?) habitat. So we stayed here for a bit- walked around, ate some salt, and watched the flamingos, while walking around in our bikini tops as if we were at the beach. Interesting day though!