We had a cruizy day lined up today, most tours would cram into four hours, before a 9am border crossing into Chile, what we were going to do in a day. That meant we could avoid the 4am departure and have breakfast at the more sociable time of 8am. Martha must have ran out of bread rolls because she brought us these fried dough 'things' - it was like a naan bread but fried like a doughnut. Nice!!

While Juan Carlos finished getting the jeep ready, we walked the length of Quetena Chico village. There wasn't much to see at that time of day, even all the kids were in school already.

We were picked up at the end of the village and drove past Quetena Grande. Both Grande and Chico used to be in one village but after some disagreements, they separated in two villages. Those creating the new village just down the road expected their village to be more prosperous and grow faster so they called themselves Quetena Grande but it didn't happen. They are now the smaller village and there is still arguments about who owns the surrounding attractions although Chico has managed to retain more services for tourism.

A short distance further we stopped to see one of the biggest llama farms in the area. Most llamas are brought in for the night to a pen but this pen was the size of a football pitch and full of llamas, young and old.

Given we had heaps of time today, we stopped by canyon for photos. The floor of the canyon was a lush green with a small river running through it which contrasted with the reddish rock walls.

Juan Carlos let us out the jeep at Laguna Hedionda to take a short walk. There were a few flamingos on the lake but they were really timid and flew off before we even got close to them. The next lake we came across was Laguna Kollpa, which had sodium carbonate in it. Locals would collect this for inclusion in detergent products. A little further on we passed Salar de Chalviri which has only a thin layer of salt on it but also contains Borox, used for porcelain.

We arrived at the Thermal baths much later than those heading for the border so it was less busy. We needed a good soak because we had been skipping showers for a couple of days. There was no way anyone was having a cold shower whilst it was freezing cold. By the time we changed into our togs, the pool had emptied so we had it to ourselves. Only for a while though, other groups came but they did leave before us, we were in no rush.

While we were soaking, Martha was busy in the kitchen making us a lunch of potato salad with beef (that was maybe llama). It definitely wasn't eye fillet quality but all in all, it was damn tasty.

After lunch, we continued towards Cabañas through Desierto Dali with its bizarrely piled up rocks. The area was so named because paintings, by the famous artist Dali, resembled the area despite him never having been to Bolivia.

The desert began to give way to mountains and we headed up through Paso del Condor. We didn't actually see any condors but there were a few families of Vicuñas up the arid highlands.

As we drove down the other side of the pass, we saw Laguna Blanca (white water) and Laguna Verde (green water). Blanca lies at a slightly higher altitude than Verde and takes its water from underground. If it gets too full, it overflows into Laguna Verde.

Laguna Verde with Vulcán Licancabur standing at 5,918m behind it normally makes for a perfect reflection photo but it was blowing a gale today. The lagoon is also very toxic, the green colour coming from Arsenic, Lead, Copper and other heavy metals in the ground. There was some weird foam on the lake edge that was being whipped up by the waves, perhaps something to do with the minerals & metals.

We were told that it takes about 6 hours for an experienced climber to climb Volcán Licancabur and can only be climbed from the Bolivian side, the Chilean side is too steep. Many people don't make it to the top - Juan Carlos had been to top twice but other times he had to return from the half way point with others in the group who couldn't continue with the ascent.

Juan Carlos asked if we wanted to walk alongside Laguna Blanca towards Cabañas, where we were going to stay, but with the howling cold wind we decided just to drive there.

It was really exposed and very windy at the hostel. The room we were given was freezing cold too, it was on the side of the building that never got the sun on it. Sleeping bags were pulled out and stuffed under the three blankets and between the fleece sheets in preparation for a cold night.

There were no other tourists at this hostel because most tourists head for a border crossing in the morning, we wanted an easy day though. There were lots of trucks passing by and jeeps would stop by for the drivers to come in for a bit and then disappear again.

Martha meanwhile was cooking up a mean spaghetti bolognase and even had a bottle of red wine for us because it was our last night.