Trips

 

Mon., 1/28/19 - Atacama Desert - the El Tatio Geysers

Today’s tour took us from our hotel at 7,800 feet of altitude up to 14,146 feet to the El Tatio Geysers, and over a 15,000 foot pass on the way. We got up at 4 AM, picked up a bag breakfast (which we ate for lunch), and got on our bus with Ivan (driver) and Mike (guide). There were 9 of us in a larger Mercedes bus and I was given the front solo seat. I had a great view but the 1 1/2 hour ride up was all before sunrise and pitch dark outside. It was about 100 km (60 miles) on washboard roads of magnesium chloride packed earth.

The field of bubbling hot springs and geysers - fumaroles - at El Tatio is the third largest in the world. There are about 300 bubbling pot holes. Eruptions occur as ground water flows over the lava field producing huge plums of steam and gases that escape through cracks in the surface. Some geysers reach 10 meters in height. At 7:00 AM at over 14,000 feet the temperature was about 32° and the oxygen level was diminished. We wore all the layers we brought to San Pedro de Atacama.

There are two reasons the tours leave so early. The rising steam condenses in the cold air before sunrise making the geysers more spectacular and the sunrise over the snow covered (and it snowed yesterday up here) Andes can produce magical colors across the sky and rainbows through the steam. We had more storm clouds on the east side of the 19,000 foot peaks so no spectacular sunrise but the field of activity was impressive anyway. We slowly walked around among the fumaroles and watched them boil until tension and pressure caused a geyser to shoot up.

First view of the geysers
Red painted rocks mean "danger"
	Lots of people
Dawn on the Andean peaks
	Lots of geysers
Beautiful grasses
We were there photo	Vicuna, golden grasses, and steam
Almost like Morning Glory Pool at Yellowstone	Breakfast - On a single burner stove in the back of the bus, Ivan cooked scrambled eggs, made coffee and hot chocolate for hot mochas and toasted bread to eat with cheese, ham and salami, or Nutella and jam. There were also muffins. It was a wonderful buffet and hotter than what is usually available at our hotels.
After breakfast, we started back to town in the daylight. We saw lots of vicuña, one young Chilla fox who had learned to beg at cars stopping to take his picture.	Chilla fox
Chilla fox	Chilla fox
	We stopped so we could take photos of the dark circles of Vicuña scat among the straw grasses. Vicuña only poop where all the other vicuña poop. Interesting - like being potty trained!
Desert, road, and mountains	We stopped at a river with algae (Vado Putano) and coots building nests, really cute blue-billed ducks, sand pipers, flamingos (the Andean ones were building nests on shore) and James flamingos in a mountain lake.
Volcano ahead	Marsh ahead
Blue-billed Ruddy Duck	Nest-building Coot
Sandpiper	Marsh
Mt. Licancabur	Wading vicuna
Vicuna	Grass and rocks
Our "super highway"	Ruins
	Finally, some llamas
	Vicuna
Flamingos	Mt. Licancabur
Salt flats in the distance	Wild burros
There were two canyons with water flowing from hot springs. Each created a micro-climate for the pampas grass, cardon cacti, and mother-in-law cactus at about 3,000 to 3,500 feet altitude. Mother-in-law cactus is shaped like a hassock for her to sit on but it is covered with barbs!
Cardon cacti	Mother-in-Law cactus
We got back to the hotel just before 1 PM and after eating some lunch, decided to walk into San Pedro before it got any hotter or the thunder storms began. There is not much to town. Pedestrian streets are wall-to-wall places to eat or buy souvenirs. We looked for an Atacama spoon and quickly gave up. The shops sell lots of hats and gloves and warm woolen (llama) sweaters along with the same woven runners, purses, and bags that are seen throughout Central and South America. There is a town square with large old trees and a mud-brick church. The side streets are narrow with 8-foot brick or adobe houses and stone walls. It was hot!
Main street of San Pedro de Atacama	Town square
Church	Stop, in any language
A mud-brick wall	This side adventure into the Atacama Desert was fascinating. It was like visiting Arches, Bryce, Zion, and Yellowstone National Parks, and the Swiss Alps all in three days and within a 60 mile radius. Pictures and descriptions just do not do it all justice.

Tues., 1/29/19 - San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago, Chile

We had a 6:35 AM pick up to drive us to Calama for our Latam Airlines flight at 9:35 to Santiago. We arrived on time in Santiago to a busy, crowded airport. They are rebuilding the whole international section - they need the expansion desperately. We collected our bags and found the TransVip counter that printed out a voucher for the free shuttle (one mile) ride to our same hotel - the Almagro. Marge was beginning to feel really under the weather, so she had a nap while I walked to the Mini-Market and bought a 2 liter bottle of water for 90 pesos or $1.50. We ate dinner, a nice pasta dish, at the hotel.

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