Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 2

Friday morning, we met our tour guide, Freddie, to begin our tour to Lake Chungara - the highest lake in the world. We started our tour with a trip to the "supermarket" - a huge warehouse like complex where families set up fruit and vegetable stands. After buying supplies for our trip, we continued out to the desert where we saw hieroglyphs - the ancient atacameños would create images on the hills using bits of rock, retelling stories from their history for future generations. After that, we went to Arica's museum and saw a detailed accounting of the development of the indigenous people in northern Chile, complete with mummies! From there, we started the looong drive UP: 5500 feet in one day. We drove through a good portion of the desert, stopping at a Hari Krishna monastery for a vegetarian lunch, and also for a hike along the Inka Trail (about an hour or so, during which time my friend got to get up close and personal with some guanaco). We ended the day in Putre, a tiny altiplano town 7000 feet above sea level, and were treated to a typical andean dinner of meat, vegetables, quinoa (a type of cereal that when cooked is kinda like couscous), and coca tea, supposedly really good for the altitude (worked for me, at least!). Then to sleep for an early morning the rest of the way to Lake Chungara.