Forward for our first day of "descent" of the Andes. Tonight we'll be around 1100m lower than this morning, but there are small passes to climb in the meantime. It's pretty chilly when we leave Juan-Carlos and Claudio. We start the day with a good descent to reach the lagoon Tuyajto. It'is very beautiful and the road revolves around for our greatest pleasure. We can see flamingos in the distance, so we decide to approach a little to see them better. We manage to take some pictures without coming too close to not disturb them.
Soon we arrive at the edge of Salar Aguas Calientes just as beautiful and even bigger. While stopping, we come face to face with a viscacha, a kind of rabbit with long tail. Flamingos also populate the salar. Leaving the salar, a flock of vicuñas yale at us as a large hairy spider crosses the road. Decidedly we see uncommon animals today.
The day becomes long after lunch, we still have to climb some passes and we're still quite high up. At the end of the day, the slope accelerates and we arrive in Socaire, the first small village since Argentina. We're struggling to find a place to sleep and eat. There are several restaurants but they only serve tourists for lunch. We don't find where to camp and all the free rooms are taken by the workers of the Paso de Sico road still under construction. We end up finding a small room without sheets and a meal chicken and cold rice for almost nothing, it's not that bad after all. But the only small kiosk provides virtually nothing, we buy pans at the restaurant for tomorrow morning.
