Through the Salt Flats and Jirira

October 20, 2024, from the Itinerary: Drive 95 miles to the lodge at Jirira

Hike Chituca which goes up 12244 up to 12500- 2 miles.

San Pedro de Quemes to learn more about quinoa

After that, drive 40 minutes to Galaxa Cave which houses another necropolis 

Continue on 30 minutes to the Salt Flats and lunch.

After lunch, continue to an island and hike white mantle-1 mile-12027-12365 feet up

Arrive at the Jirira Lodge 

Weather: 73 degrees- wind at 10 mph

A nice sunrise this morning

and the moon at 3am

and some nice photos of the lodge

and then we drove to San Pedro

San Pedro de Quemes used to be called Boa Vista, but during pacific war Chileans came to live in the town and pushed locals out and they ran to Ikala (where we had lunch yesterday).  When people came back they burned the old village and gave new name- Quemes- and rebuilt lower in the valley.

The Galaxa Cave was discovered by some brothers who were looking for a young girl, found dead in the necropolis after a rain. It is a dead cave - no wet/live stalactites and stalagmites and rather uninteresting, but it is at the entrance to the salt flats.

Driving in the salt flats is cool and smooth. It is totally open and flat, but there are 32 islands inside the salt flats. There is a total of over 120 outside islands inside and outside the salt flats. Mirages are also visible

the salt flats themselves look like geometric designs and taste very salty

They are vaste

We stop for traditional funny pictures - forced perspective. Scan through all the photos for some fun

Lunch is under a tarp and very relaxing - soup, salad and beer. Chris had a lot of hot sauce with his.

The hike up White Mantle ends in a beautiful view where the salt flats looks like an actual ocean.

Traveling on a bit further we come to the Jirira Lodge which has some funny signs - a max velocity of 80 along a track where we would be lucky to do 20mph - and a beware of cattle sign - no cattle. We saw a beautiful volcano with fields for quinoa

The lodge and hotel room are identical to the other lodges, except the room is about 50% bigger with a nice sitting area. The view is amazing.

Our welcome drink is called Shew fly. It's 42 % proof alcohol.

the clouds at sunset were lit up

Dinner

As we left the lodge we were met with gale force winds and were almost blown off our feet. While drifting off to sleep the wind moved the entire building.

This was our favorite day so far on the trip.