Collected from hotel at 8am.
Iain still feeling dodgy so made the wise decision to stay
hotel-bound. Just as well as we retraced
our journey back up the Andes Mountains, then turned off and bounced along
off-road to Salar de Tara. Some weird
rock formations from the volcanic activity, where the surrounding area softer
soil has been gradually eroded leaving these isolated statues of rock. 
Then some more bouncing where we came across
families of llamas and alpacas and vicunyas to two different lakes where there
were a couple of flamingo and lots of other birdlife. A particularly industrious rodent, decided to
dig its den not far from us and seemingly oblivious to our presence. The salt in the area looked really weird,
more like frost/snow around the tufts of green and yellow grasses. It is actually a mixture of all sorts of
minerals, including lithium, but after the rains and work of the underground
streams, the water raises the sodium to the top and then the evaporation leaves
the white salt-looking crust everywhere.
Lunch was at the Laguna Cejar, where we were greeted by a prepared
lunch of beef and/or salmon and salads, laid out on a tablecloth with full
crockery and wine glasses, under a shady pergola. Chilled beers and white wine added to the mirage
in the desert! We ate a full lunch, and
when we could hardly waddle, were taken to the Lagoon to float in the
incredibly salty waters. It was actually
a lot cooler than I thought it would be, as the water from one of the
underground streams breaks through the salty desert crust there, but is
actually about 20 metres deep. It would be
impossible to drown there as it was so buoyant, so Jude, Diane and I
entertained the other visitors with a display of synchronised swimming. 
Luckily there were showers there, as we were encrusted by salt by
the time we had reached the banos area.
Left at around 5pm then on to The Valley of the Moon to see some more
unworldly rock formations and salt-encrusted mountains. Finally went to Kari
outlook to watch the sun set. 
This was
given another unexpected boost, when we set up away from the multi-coach loads
of other tourists and our guide and driver set up another tablecloth on a rock
block, and proceeded to cover it with goats' cheese, nuts/raisins, olives and
chorizo, with pisco sours and beers.. Sheer
heaven to indulge while the sun set, a rainbow came out over the mountains and
we closed off a fabulous day.
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