Wednesday 12th December

An early start today as we were going to view the El Tatio geysers. At 4.30am our bus arrived with guide Enzo. We had collected our box breakfasts from reception and had a couple of coca teas before leaving. It was dark and cool but we were expecting it to be much colder as we ascended to higher altitudes. We dozed in the bus before reaching the 9.5 sqkm geyser field at 4500m. It was still dark when we drove up the last track, and we were glad of our extra layers and hats. Moments later, the sky started to light up behind the Andes, and dawn was breaking as we arrived for breakfast at the entrance point. Coca tea, yoghurt, pastries and fruit - not dissimilar to our box breakfast! The temperature was only -1 degrees, which is good compared to the -10 degrees they had last week!
The field was an impressive site - dozens of bubbling geysers were sending columns of white steam up into the air. We went down to the main geyser area, and were warned to stay on the marked paths. There is only a thin crust over the geysers in some areas and there was a fatality some years ago. Someone leant forward to take a photograph, the crust at the edge of the geyser gave way, and they fell in. The water in the geyser is at boiling point (86 degrees at this altitude).
The geysers produce plumes of steam up to 12M high intermittently. The spouts of water can be up to 4 metres high, and the geysers can suddenly boil up without warning. Some have rings of brightly coloured bacterial growth around the base. Although we were among the first to arrive, the basin was full of tourists taking snapshots in the early morning light. It was quite an eerie sight looking across the field into the bright sun glinting over the mountains, with steam rising in columns everywhere and dozens of people standing watching - rather reminiscent of a scene from the sci-fi film ‘Close Encounters’... Although there are a lot of people, there are plenty of bubbling, spitting, puffing geysers to go round and we stand and watch several different ones. The larger ones are surrounded by low walls and they puff and spurt in spectacular fashion. The smaller ones are scattered everywhere, simply marked by a circle of pebbles. It’s quite disconcerting because most of the time they just emit a faint whispery thread of steam, but at other times will start bubbling and spitting!
We moved on to the thermal spa where there is a pool that is cool enough for swimming and we decided to take a dip. The water was warmest on the surface, cooler below and almost scalding near the inflow. As in the field, the activity of the underwater geysers varies, so from time to time the lovely bath temperature water suddenly developed a patch that was very hot indeed, so that people suddenly leapt up and moved! There was a deeper, cooler area for swimming and a shallower hotter area with a clear, gravelly base for lounging. Luckily it was still cold outside when we arrived, so we are amongst the first to strip off and take the plunge, and therefore shared the pool with just a handful of other enthusiastic, hardy people. We swam and lounged in the warm sunshine in relative solitude for half an hour. By the time we emerged from the changing rooms after our swim the pool was packed shoulder to shoulder like a Spanish beach on a bank holiday.
Next stop was an unexpected area of wetland where we spotted
sandpiper, geese, silver teal, yellow billed pintails and great coots. Further on there are three partridge like birds - the chilean tinamou beside the road- larger and more colourful than their UK counterparts.
On the descent we also saw vicuña, a fox, and a lot of long tailed rabbits - viscachas - hopping like miniature kangaroos up and down a rocky slope.
Next we stopped at the little village of Machuca where the eponymous catholic priest built a church where the local inhabitants could seek sanctuary during the genocide that occurred during the Spanish conquest. Here, where we purchased a couple of Llama kebabs cooked on a barbecue outside a small cafe. The meat was dense but really tasty and tender. We wandered up to the tiny whitewashed adobe church, dimly lit by a few candles and tended by two traditionally robed nuns. It was full of flowers, presumably following the festival of the immaculate conception last weekend. The quiet watchfulness of the nuns was enough to prevent even the most brazen tourist venturing in with their selfie stick.
On the way home we stopped at another wetland with many flamingos - both Andean and James. So now we have spotted a full house of flamingo varieties.
The return journey was very quiet as most of us snoozed after an early start, food and a hot bus!
We were back in the sanctuary of our room by 11.00, but it felt as if we had experienced a whole day of exploration!
Initially the plan was to siesta for a couple of hours, but a cup of ‘coca mate’ tea soon revived us and we decide to make use of the slightly cooler morning and head off to the Meteorite Museum. This is based on the edge of town in a white geometric dome.
We spent a fascinating 30 minutes doing an audio tour. The reason that it is based here is that the climate is so dry that the meteorite fragments do not oxidise and deteriorate. We knew almost nothing about meteorites and learnt a lot! Meteorites fall to earth quite frequently but most remain unnoticed as they fall into the ocean or land in areas other than the desert where they quickly oxidise and disintegrate. The way to distinguish a meteorite from and similar looking volcanic rock is simple - the former is magnetic. There are records in the past of meteors several metres across that have left huge craters in the desert, and of the 10km meteorite that landed in Mexico millions of years ago, responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. More commonly the meteorite breaks up into small rocks on impact with the earth’s atmosphere, and appear on the ground as an ellipse / tear drop shaped scatter of small to medium sized pebbles, sometimes over an area of a few kilometres.
On our way back through the town square we come across the dancers and bands again, back out on the streets. This is all part of the celebration of the virgin as demonstrated by the icons and banners. How the dancers keep going in costumes is amazing - the black, white and grey bears were getting their heads sprayed with water during the routine! Once again sweets were being thrown and we were covered with a liberal dosing of confetti!
We opted for a salad lunch in the cold and calm of Roots in the Mercado Blanche, and made a fast exit when the Andean flute player arrived, plugged in his amplifier, struck up at high volume.
We then returned once again to the cool oasis of calm on our shady deck!
We spent a peaceful afternoon in the shade, eating fruit, dancing tango & going for a last swim in the pool. The air was so dry and hot that any washing was dry before we knew it.
For supper we tried a new venue as our favourite is closed on Wednesday! However the Ckunna came up trumps - we ate early as we had stargazing later.
We were the first to arrive this evening and so had the lovely shady courtyard to ourselves. Pisco sours were icy cold and lemony - perfecto! We shared a green salad- and a ‘Carnivores feast’ to share! Then back to the hotel to pack and put our thermals on ready for a night visit to the desert!
We were collected at 9.15 and toured around the town picking up a couple of Germans and some young Mexicans with their chips. We then headed out into the darkness along smaller and smaller bumpy roads and tracks, watching the lights of the town disappear behind us and the darkness of the empty space envelope us. Even through the minibus window we could see that the sky became bright with stars. We are used to dark skies at home and at Seaway, but this was even clearer.
In a few minutes we arrived at the viewing area in a remote flat area of scrub where they had a 16” reflector telescope set up. This gave 30x magnification.
Our guide Alexandria acted as interpreter and teacher. The sky looked similar to home, but different. We spotted Orion and Pleiades easily. There were the two Magellan clouds - they look like clouds, but are permanent features in the southern night sky - rather like our Milky Way. Using the telescope, we looked at the moon in its first quarter, then on to Mars, Orion’s Nebula, the Southern Pleiades, Sirius - the brightest star in the night sky. Alexandria used a with a laser pointer to demonstrate the constellations of Canis Major the dog, Orion the hunter with his bow, Pisces - more like two cherries than two fish, and Taurus the bull - all of these inverted upside down in the Southern Hemisphere! The Plough and Polaris, of course were not visible here in the southern sky. The Southern cross was still below the horizon. We also learnt about, and saw the Andromeda galaxy, the Tarantula nebula, Betelgeuse (Orion’s left shoulder) Tucks47 and we all took turns at viewing through the big scope for each one. There were chairs and blankets, and a glass of wine and a table full of snacks provided welcome refreshment.
During the evening several shooting stars were spotted. We finished with our photos being taken against the night sky before returning to the hotel ready for our early flight to Santiago.