Our last trip Tatio Geysers

Sunday

Our last trip in San Pedro and for this we had to be up and ready for 4.30 am.  Ooch.

Well we got up and donned our shorts and padded jacket.  Only as the bus headed out of town in the dark, the guide announced that it would be minus one when we got to the geysers.  Everyone else on the bus was done up with hats, gloves, fleeces and jackets.  You would have thought he would have mentioned something.  Felt like dicks, or what.

We arrived at the geysers at dawn, and were the only people in shorts.  We had quite a few conversations with Chileans, who were amazed and our only response could be that we were English and were used to the cold.  I think we will be butt of many holiday stories for a while.

Anyway it started to warm up as the sun came up, and if you stood quite close to the geysers it was a bit warmer.  Breakfast and a coffee in the bus helped.  But it took a while for my knees to warm up.

The geysers were interesting, but after Iceland and New Zealand were a bit tame.  It was great to see the geothermal parts of the mountains, and as we drove out you could see fumeroles all over the place puffing out their steam.

We could have had a sit in a thermal pool at the site, but declined as it was packed solid, and also I thought about getting out.  We were cold enough without trying to dry off.

From there we drove on to a wetland area.  Just amazing to think there are wetlands at 4000 meters.  The whole area was teaming with Vicuna, birds and flamingos.  The green was amazing to see at such height, and after so much dryness, a true oasis for the wild life.

Our last stop on the way back to town was a small village of Machuca. Bit of an odd place.  Couldn’t quite work out what was going on.  It is an old village, but someone is renovating all the houses, you can have your picture taken with a baby llama, or try bbq'd llama kebab, or walk up to the very old and picturesque church.  I did wonder whether when the houses were renovated, they would become holiday let's.  It all seemed a bit weir

J

So it's our last high in San Pedro and we did the usual, went for a walk in town, had some dinner, wandered around.  We were already packed as we were being picked up for the transfer to the airport at 7am, another early start.