Up at 3:30am for a trip to the Geiser del Tatio, a 'field' of geysers high in the mountains a couple of hours outside San Pedro. Not a great start as the minibus crawled along at a snail's pace, at this rate we wouldn't be there until evening. The rest of the group consisted of firey Spanish and S American folk and so they soon made their feelings clear. Initially explaining that the bus have mechanical problems, the driver relented and put his foot down. Vamos!!

The geysers are only active until around 8am, hence the need for the early start. When we got there they were in full eruption mode. The maximum height is only around 3m, but there are so many of them that it is a pretty impressive sight.

It was also bloody freezing up there, I had to defrost my tatty Converse clad toes by sticking them in the smaller geysers - thank goodness safety berriers are an alien concept!

Afterwards we had time for a dip in the nearby thermal pools. Mother Nature needs a few tips, the water had two temperatures - chilly or scalding (literally) depending on where you were. All good fun.

Stopping off at a tiny village with a pretty church but no other discernible points of interest, we headed back to town in a now apparently fully recovered minibus. However, what with initial bus issues and a very disappointing guide we were not keen to use the same tour company for the trip we had booked for that afternoon. We went straight to the tour office to ask for a refund, which they were really not keen on giving. It became more problematic when the guide himself turned up and joined in the 'debate' - the main issue was with him. Eventually however we got our money back.

We booked with another company - for several pesos less - and looked forward to the trip to the Laguna Cejar. This is a lake with a higher salt content than the Dead Sea. We were sitting in the office waiting to go and who should walk in but our trusty guide from that morning!! It seems they freelance across different tour companies. Awkward!! He was actually very good about it, apologised and shook our hands. No hard feelings.

The lake was fun, floating around with no effort at all. It is in the middle of featureless desert, surrounded by a chain of volcanos and mountains. Next was a dip in a nearby, freezing cold freshwater sinkhole. Brrr.

The day ended with sunset cocktails in the middle of the desert by Laguna Tebinquinche, lovely.

Since the giant empanadas restaurant we had earmarked for dinner was closed, dinner ended up being more chicken and chips. Again much to the delight of the hostel's animal residents!