Today started early with a 4 am wake up call. With a host of other drousy hotel guests we had a quick coffee in the sala, before driving off to the El Tatio Geysers some 90 kilometres away. The roads were rough and very bumpy, there were no streetlights, and all there was to see was the brakelights of a minibus way ahead.
The journey to the El Tatio geysers is almost a pilgrimage for visitors to San Pedro. The geysers are in the highest geothermal field in the world at 4400 metres. For some reason that we haven’t managed to fathom, they only spurt at dawn, hence the unearthly hour of leaving. Because of the poor quality of the track that leads there, it takes about 2 ½ hours to get there. We arrived just as it was cracking dawn, and it was a magnificent sight. Some of the geysers release vapour that reached 10 metres in height. There were bubbling springs (85 Celcius) and fumaroles too.
It was freezing and the air was very thin, which leave you breathless.
After that we descended back down slowly, admiring the scenery that we hadn’t been able to see on the way up. A couple of vizcacha ran across the road. They look like long tail rabbits and are a relative of chinchillas. Then we came across some vicunas who were quite tame.
Further down we managed to photograph the vizcacha (on film) and then spotted a flock of flamingos on a salt flat. We passed two volcanoes, Apagado and Putana, the latter of which was smoking.
Volcan Putana, complete with smoke.
About 30 km short of San Pedro we visited the Termas de Puritama. It is a gorge where a thermal spring runs through it. The stream has been dammed to create a series of waterfalls and pools where you can bathe. The water is about body heat and very pleasant, and the scenery around is green and lush. We spent nearly three hours there, playing in a pool and just relaxing. We had expected it to be heaving, but for most of the time we had a pool to ourselves. It was only hunger that drove us to leave as we had only had a yoghurt all day, and maybe the presence of a French film crew who were filming their equivalent of Holiday helped the decision along.
"Our" pool at Puritama
Please feel sorry for us. Today is the longest day in Chile. From here on it is all darker nights and shorter days. At least in it’s getting lighter in England and Canada.
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