Flamingos! – A Quick Post, Bolivian Countryside
Installment 3 of the Salt Flat Tour (check out the Psychedelic Salt Flats and Train Cemetery, too!)
After the mind-bending first day of the salf flats tour, we headed into the Chuguana desert and volcanos lands – some active, some not so much. Bismar, our guide, told us in the morning that every hour the scenery would look completely different and he wasn’t kidding! There were times it was like driving on another planet…multiple different ones…and different than the one the salt flats was on.
The highlight for me was seeing flamingos in the wild! Big flocks of pinkness all over. They live in the high altitude lagoons and the algae in the lagoons are what turns their otherwise white feathers pink! I believe these were James’s flamingos, but don’t 100% hold me to that (there are actually six types of flamingos!).
Ever wonder about how flamingos eat or how their beaks work? I know you didn’t but here’s a video now that you are thinking about it. We were surprised by how teeny-tiny their top beaks are!
They were amazing!!!
Reflecting…
FLYYYY! We always see flamingos standing on one leg, so when we saw them take flight it took us by surprise. But yes, flamingos most definitely do fly.
See all the pink? The minerals that turn the lagoon pink, also turn the flamingos pink.
I think there were a few hundred in this flock! There are over 6000 living in the area.
It all begins with the first step…
This fellow is real, not a plastic yard ornament, we promise!
While we were busy snapping flamingo pics, our crazy truck was having an 80’s dance off! The flamingos didn’t seem to care…
…they just blissfully enjoyed the incredible landscape.
The flamingos look tie dyed!
They were a fantastic sight to see!
Great! Did you hire a company for this trip? Looks like something I’d love to do!
Yes! This was Day 3 of the Salt Flats tour we did with Red Planet (booked via Kanoo Tours). We’ve got links to them on the Psychedelic Salt Flats post. Can’t recommend them enough – they were great!
It is early Sunday morning here, and I just read your post and looked at these magnificienet photos. Seeing the single flamingo silhouetted against the enromous surrounding mountains is my meditation for the day. Not sure how to do it, but hope to print it out and frame it so I can see it every day!
Thank you and love to you both!
Grace