Today we continue to explore the northern part of Chile. In the Arica y Parinacota region, also not very far from the border with Bolivia, there are wonderful hot springs. They are called Polloquere Hot Springs (or Las Termas de Polloquere in Spanish).
These springs are located in the south of the Lauca National Park, near the Monumento Natural Salar de Surire. The the land near the springs shows that the salt marshes are somewhere nearby) The soil is quite heavily covered with salt.
Visiting the springs is free. There is literally nothing there, except perhaps for a small low three-walled structure made of stone for changing clothes or maybe a place to make a fire — I don't know for sure. There are practically no tourists there either, which is quite good.
Polloquere Hot Springs are located at an altitude of about 4 thousand meters above sea level and it is quite cool here — so it is very pleasant to relax and swim in hot water. However, you shouldn't do it for too long. It is better to take a walk along the springs and admire the views after swimming.
It is very beautiful in here. Deserted landscape, mountains and volcanoes on the horizon, and water of different colors makes the views and photos more picturesque and unusual. Yes, yes, the water in the neighboring small lagoons there is slightly different in color, it wasn't two different places in the photos above.
And when we were there, the weather also added variety — the clouds from white on a blue sky quickly changed to heavy thunderstorm dark clouds. Gloomy but beautiful!
If you are going to go there, look for information about the road — somewhere I saw that it is better to go there in a 4×4 car. We got there in a small minibus, but with an experienced driver and I don't even remember if it was 4WD.
It's better to watch the photos in high resolution.
OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
Exposure time: 1/320 sec
Aperture: F 8
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Focal length: 12 mm
35 mm equivalent: 24 mm
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo
By the way, if you are interested in purchasing my high-resolution photographs in order to use them privately (including printing on photo paper or large canvas), collect some pictures or just thank me, then you can visit the new Lensy.io marketplace and view and buy one of limited editions of my tokenized photos. Lensy.io is a digital photography marketplace built on the Hive blockchain. It launched a few days ago and I hope that
will be successful in the future.