Bolivia: Valle del Rio Grande de Lipez

Continuing further to Uyuni, you soon come to a very broad valley of the river Rio Grande de Lioez aka La Pampa de Los Alpacos. There are thousands of alpacas in this huge wet valley! The Río Grande de Lípez comes down from the high cordillera to the south and spreads out into a huge, very flat alluvial plain. Because the ground is almost perfectly level and the soil is heavy clay, rainwater and snowmelt have nowhere to drain quickly, so the valley is either a huge lake (in wet season) or a green valley (in dry season), packed to the rim with colorful alpacas. While alpacas are all domesticated, there are occasionally some wild vicuñas interspersed in – totally beautiful and graceful animals!