“You completely lose perspective here" Collaborator and writer Mark Johanson echoes as he remembers the words of Altiplano guide David Torres.

Recently this story made across Chile and Bolivia was featured in the first Observer magazine since being acquired by Tortoise media.

Mark and I embarked on a week long Travesía (long crossing or journey) across a segment of the Qhapaq Ñan, the ancient Incan road system that covers 18,600 miles across six countries, from Argentina in the south to Colombia in the north. Along with Johanson and Torres, we fixed ourselves up for the 300-mile circuit across Chile's Atacama desert and the Salar de Uyuni salt flat in Bolivia, an unforgiving terrain in every sense of the word, yet one that still demands admiration.

At 14,000 feet the ground here is white, the water is red, and the winds whip up the sand of ancient seabeds.

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