The trusty alarm went off at 4:15am and Fiona and I immediately
jumped into action to get ready and out of the room in 15 mins. This is a new
sport we have been practicing a lot over the past 2 weeks.....
Just before 5:00am we were last people to be picked up on
the tour bus, which meant we got to sit right at the back-of-the-bus, with all
the additional legroom that entailed... Result...! We set off in the pitch
black of early morning and headed in the general direction of Northeast towards
the El Tatio Geyser field some 50 miles away, near the Bolivian boarder. The travel
distance was not as significant as the altitude change, as we went from 2400m
to 4300m, which has been known to have a very detrimental effect on some people
due to altitude sickness. This was the reason Fiona & I had decided to do
this trip the day before we left San Pedro in order to allow our bodies to
acclimatise to San Pedro’s altitude, before assaulting ourselves with almost
another 2000m increase.
I sat in the back of the bus zoning out while listening to
my iPod as we drifted through the moonless desert and steadily ascended the
long climb through a series of switch-backs and long straights. One of the
other passengers on the bus was having a hard time with the altitude change,
and we stopped for a short while to allow them a sort break before continuing
onward. Both Fiona & I were okay, but you can really feel the effects of the
altitude change with shortness of breath and achiness in your body as you get
higher & higher. About an hour before sunrise we arrived at the Geyser park
entrance and we got off the bus to pay the entry fee... Bugger Me Backwards...!!
It was COLD, in fact it was -10 degrees C, and our guide took great pleasure in
letting us know it would get lower just before the sun actually rose.
Fifteen minutes later, in the half-light of the pre-dawn we
stepped off the bus again into a surreal and haunting landscape of billowing
mists and the coughing and spluttering of boiling water. The El Tatio is the 3rd
largest geyser field in the entire world and has hundreds of individual geysers
or fumaroles. The reason the tour is run at sunrise is that the the air
temperature is at its lowest and this makes the steam from the vents more visible
and impressive, and impressive it was. Apart from the fact that I had the perverse
idea of dipping my gloveless hands into a vent to warm them up, I was enjoying
the spectacle immensely. Fiona was wrapped up in every item of clothing she
could put on, (including 2 pairs of trousers), wrapped in a blanket, and she
was still cold....
We were led through the geyser field, moving from one interesting
sight to another until we approached where the bus was parked, and also where breakfast
was now laid out on a low wall. Before we reached the bus however, our tour
guide, Mariano, reached down into large geyser hole and pulled out a couple of
cartons of chocolate milk and a bag full of eggs, now hard boiled from the heat
of the water... Ingenious...! I have now eaten an egg cooked by a geyser, and the
hot chocolate was also very welcome. As we ate our breakfast, Mariano informed
us that the temperature had now reached -13 degrees, but it would change
momentarily when the sun rose. He was not wrong, as soon as the sun crested the
far mountain ridge it was like an electric heater had been turned on as the
warm rays of the sun were now being absorbed through my jacket..... Hmmmm,
warm....
We had some further time to wander around and take photos
before we boarded the bus to head to the thermal hot pools for those that were
brave enough to get their kit off and take the plunge. No, don’t get your hopes
up, even I wasn’t dumb enough to put myself through that savage ritual, but a
couple of Frenchies on the bus did. Allegedly it was colder than it looked.....
Imagine that.
From there we started the long journey back to San Pedro, stopping
off to see some Andean wildlife and some wetlands, plus a stop for a goat
cheese empanada at the original ‘one-horse-town’
that has only 3 residents. By this point I was starting to suffer the reverse
effects of the altitude and with each meter we descended, a small head ache that
had developed, proceeded to get stronger & stronger. By the time Fiona
& I arrived at the hotel at midday, there was only one thing we were going
to do, and that was take some headache tablets and climb in to bed to sleep....
We finally resurfaced at about 3 hours later that afternoon and
mooched about the hotel for the rest of the afternoon, drinking tea &
coffee out in the beautifully designed gardens in the warm sunlight. We rounded
the day out with dinner at a restaurant called ‘Blanco’ that was all trendy
white interior, dim lights and subtle house music, and very nice food too....
Tomorrow, (Friday I think?), we pack our bags and head back
to Santiago, before taking off again on Saturday, spending the rest of the weekend
in Valparaiso on the Pacific coast until Monday. As I won’t be taking the
laptop with me on that trip, this could be the last post for 4 or 5 days....
Signing off for now...
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