Flamingos y Mas Flamingos

We came to Chile in search of mountain desert flamingos and expected that many others come for the same reason. However, the tourism highlights seem to revolve around the Tatio Geysers, Valle del Luna and the dusty streets of San Pedro. In all of San Pedro, we haven’t seen one flamingo-related souvenir!

Before heading to Calama from San Pedro de Atacama, we visited the primary flamingo reserve in Chile: Laguna Chaxa. As expected, the reserve was nearly empty, with only one or two tour busses and about 20 sunburned tourists.

We wandered out to the lagunas (lakes) where the flamingos feed on brine shrimp, sat down and watched…

A very friendly sandpiper.

Two very aggressive lizards.

We had hung back from the close flamingo viewing area until the tour busses departed. We were left alone with the flamingos.

Six flamingos started to dance. This is the closest we saw to the famous flamingo dance. Here’s a clip from the National Geographic special that got us excited about flamingos in the first place. (Really worth the watch!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW8GX2n4qbY 

…and before the dance had begun, they took off…

Most of the flamingos that we had seen were Andean Flamingos with their characteristic black tails. We were lucky enough to catch this pair of Chilean Flamingos. Flamingos generally mate for life. Like a long-married couple, these two flamingos took turns feeding and watching out around each other.

  

Dan and Kate practicing their flamingo dance.

After a few hours of flamingo viewing, we hit the road to San Pedro de Atacama and enjoyed la comeida (a big lunch) in the center square. There we met an entrepreneur from Bombay, India who was in Chile working on his pay-by mobile phone business. The business model is intriguing: you link credit cards or bank accounts to an application on your mobile phone. Payments are made through encrypted text message and your pin number. The idea is that in developing areas (where everyone has a cell phone), people can make secure payments with minimal hassle. In theory the process is as secure as a credit card, if not moreso because your payment device (cell phone) never leaves your hand (unlike a credit card) and payments are secured by a pin. The fee is minimal; $2 per month for merchants and something quite a bit less for individuals.

After lunch we bid la Atacama chao and hit the road for Calama.