Our Great Adventure: El Tatio Geysers Day 247 23/05/2015

The cruel, wicked alarm clock woke us at 0430 and we were up and ready for our transport at 0500. It was below freezing and dark and we hoped to get the first pick up again but it was not to be, waiting until 0520 for the minibus to arrive. Our guide Patrico greeted us and we stopped off at 4 hostels picking up other guests. We headed north to visit the El Tatio Geysers which were at an altitude of 4320m (more sore heads!).The journey took a couple of hours which we dozed through only to wake up still very cold on arrival at the park gates. We got off to use the toilets, greeted by a very long queue. It seemed that most of San Pedro were here this morning and Patrico confirmed it was unusually busy probably due to it being a public holiday weekend. After everyone had "relieved themselves" we followed the snake of headlights into the desert area, which we could now see due to it getting lighter, permeated by many huge flumes of steam. Patrico explained the reason for the early start was not to catch the sunlight but to see the geysers spurting in all their glory. As the water runs off underground from the nearby mountains, it builds up pressure at this site, hence the geysers but as the water runs out at 1030/1100 each day you need to be there early to witness its full glory. There were geysers constantly spurting water, some spurting every 3 minutes and others only spurting every 10/15 minutes. We walked around some of them consuming the hot tea and coffee we were given with our breakfasts. Simon also had an egg that had been boiled from one of the geysers! The whole geothermal field was certainly an impressive sight and seemed a lot more "natural" to the one we had visited in Rotorua in New Zealand. We were then offered the chance to swim in one of the hot thermal pools which, noting we had just warmed up in the bright morning sun, we declined. Others took up the offer and as we visited some other geysers we heard screams and "oohs" as people climbed out of the hot water to attempt to dry quickly in the still cold air. We then headed back to the park gates, paid the entrance fees, caught sight of a vicuna and a cooperro and drove back towards San Pedro. En route we saw a Chilean rabbit nearly perfectly camouflaged on the massive piles of rocks at the side of the road. We stopped on route at the pre Colombian village (although it looked more renovated and quite modern with its satellite dishes and mobile phone mast) of Machuca and visited the lovely church there. We arrived back in San Pedro just after one, had some lunch, changed some of our Chilean money into Bolivian and then spent the rest of the afternoon getting our things in order for our 3 day adventure crossing into Bolivia through the salt flats. We've enjoyed the three, very different, trips we've done here. Yesterday was probably our favourite in part due to the solitude in the early morning and views of the volcanos and the salf flats were stunning. Dinner in the evening was at Adobe, recommended to us by Dan and Dawn. Whilst it's our last night in Chile, we were good on the drinks as it's another early start tomorrow with a long day in prospect, crossing the border where hopefully our 4WD and guide will be waiting. They'll definitely be no blog or facebook updates for a few days!