San Pedro de Atacama-Geysers
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2007
1
21
124
Trip End
Ongoing
San Pedro de Atacama,
Chile
Friday, September 7, 2007
First tour we did here was to El Tatio Geysers which were 87 kilometers from San Pedro de Atacama town. The Geysers del Tatio are located 4,300 meters above sea level; in a massive geothermal field. We left at 5am to be there for sunrise.... we saw some fumarolas with great steam and small explosions it was cool. But also freezing, it was minus 15celcius...our fingers were so sore, and we were wearing big ski gloves.
Our tour guide brought breakfast out for the four of us (the Irish girls, Niamh & Kim came too). Was first time we had brown soda bread...but nothing like home
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! We drank coffe by bucket load just to hold the hot cup trying to defrost our hands! Sunrise came and was coll to see, and as soon as it showed its face it immediately warmed up. Just felt so strange going from -15 to actually feeling warm, taking off hats, gloves etc in space of 5-10mins. Weather just so extreme here.After breakfast at the geysers we piled back into jeep and headed for the thermal spring baths...which was an experience and a half. Basically a mud bottomed pool in middle of nowhere with bubbling warm water (smelled strongly of sulpher though...not good!). Funniest thing was watching people getting into swimming gear. Everyone there was dressed for early morning temp of -15 celcius, and then had to strip to togs or bikinis. Seeing as its in the middle of nowhere there are no changing rooms or toilets, so you just get undressed at side if thermal pool. So image everone clad in their North Face gear...10 fleece jackets, 5 jumpers, 2 tee-shirts, trousers, leggings underneath, big wooly welly socks and hiking boots....and striping layer by layer into togs! Then the piece de resistence...walking to the pool...terraine really rough, and frozen in ice so you have to wear your boots to waters edge....yes bikin´s and hiking boots....not a sight for sore eyes! Was lovely and warm though once you got in. The bottom of pool was all gloopy brown mud, but really hot when you dug your toes into it...again helped with defrosting
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! Bear in mind it was still round -5 celcius above the water!So then came the fun part...having to get out & get dressed. What a nightmare. Nowhere to hide or stand behind while trying to keep your modesty behind a hand towel, not easy! And while the lads may have got an eyeful (especially all the sneaky tour guide men) with the girls nipplitis, us poor girls had nothing to look at as the sub zero temps severly affected all the near naked males...terribly sad!
After geysers we drove through more of the desert until our driver brought us to a wee shack...mud house with a corrugated iron roof. Here the local male of the family was putting on lama kebabs on the bar-b-q, (and look at the ppicture Kevin Watters its same as your bbq!!!), while the wife was in the ´kitchen´ preparing a sort of poppadom. It was made from quinoa (they eat it with everything here) and rolled out like dough in a circular shape. She then throws it into pan of boiling oil and within one minute its cooked. Really nice too...wasn´t crispy like poppadom or prawn crackers, was kind of like french toast, really nice and very filling. As for the lama meat, it was tough, chewy and grissly. But reckon it was just poor lama, cuz it was nicer elsewhere.
Then after looking at a wee church there it was back into jeep and back to our hostel Incahausi...where the incompetent Jackie Chan driver lives! Ciao for now amigos xoxo
