THE TATIO GEYSER

Friday, February 26, 2010

The stars are shining bright in the sky and the air is calm and cool. The van picks us up at 4:00 am for a two hour drive to the Tatio Geyser. The road is terribly pumby. It’s a good thing we are not able to see much, because it appears we are driving through some very scary passes, high up in the Andes. We are so high, that we can see stars below us. Small light dots in front of us, indicate a caravan of tour vans and busses, filled, with between 6 to 20 passengers.
Midway one of the tour vans has broken down. They stop every bus behind them, hoping for an empty seat to take some of their passengers.

When we get out of the mini bus at the park entrance to use the bathrooms and pay our entrance fee, we need to bundle up. It’s only 2 degrees Celsius here.
“The rain has warmed up the air”, I am told. Normally it is between 0 and 15 degrees Celsius and in winter between -10 and -30.  We have mittens and scarfs and a warm jacket, so we should be fine.

We receive a brief lesson on craters and thermal heat and how the temperature of the steam coming out of the crater can cause severe burns. “Keep your hands away from the steam”.

We are curious why we have to be here soo early and learn, that at night the cool, humid air, creates a higher barometric pressure, acting as a lid over the craters. Once the sun heats the air, the lid more or less lifts, releasing the steam. Unfortunately the rain from last night, caused a lot of clouds, making it difficult to see the same results as others before us may have seen.
The spouts are not as high as we expected. Often they reach a height of 6-10 meters.

We see an old power plant and learn that this was an experiment. They had hoped to be able to provide power to the community, but the operating cost are higher than the revenue, so they let everything sit there to rust.

Our guides talks about a “HOT” breakfast that will be waiting for us back at the bus. We visualize scrambled eggs, but all we see is bread, cake, yougurt, ham and cheese. Other tour companies have brought griddles and are indeed cooking scrambled eggs. Did we go with the wrong tour company perhaps?

We walk slowly and avoid bending down so we won’t be bothered so much by the high altitude. Last night we filled a large thermos with boiled water and made strong Coca tea. When it cooled off, we filled our water bottles with the tea and have been drinking this all evening and during our trip to the Geyser. This does help to a certain degree, but it is better to chew the coca leaves.
Once we return to the bus, the clouds are starting to lift, revealing a series of snow capped mountain as a result of last night’s rain.

We are happy that the bus stops every now and then to allow us to get out and take pictures of the active vulcan of Putana, of which we see a mirror image in the clear, blue  lagoon in front. To the right is volcan Sairecabur and next is Llancabur.

As we continue higher up, our tour guide announces that we have reached the highest point of our tour at 4,500 meters ASL. making the mountain range in front of us look quite spectacular.

We slowly work our way down again, spotting entire herds of Vicuñas and a large variety of birds at the various lagoons we pass.

At our next stop, we enter a deep rocky canyon, with a thermal river, with temperatures of about 38 degrees celsius.
Now we understand why it was suggested to wear our bathing suit under our clothes, we are going to have a bath. But first we need to hike down the canyon for about 20 minutes, jumping and climbing over rocks.

We continue to follow the stream until we reach a small pool, big enough for at least 12 people to take a warm bath. The small river runs down the various levels and drops in the form of a small waterfall in the pool. From there it continues to run down stream into another pool further on. In between are the gorgeous fox tail plants.

While I enjoy the nice warm water with some of  my fellow passengers, Ramiro goes rock hunting. He does not know how to swim, he explains to the others.
He probably does not liek the idea of having the tiny fish get stuck between his toes.

I regret having to get out of the nice warm water, but another group will be here soon. I find a place behind the rocks to change into my dry clothes and we climb up the rocks again.

We make one more stop. In order to reach some of these unique places, we often must hike down. To see the cactus garden is no different. We follow a small stream along the mountain slope over numerous rocks. The recent rainfall has broadened the stream and it is difficult to keep our feet dry.

There are a large number of cactus trees, which make excellent building material, but due to its slow growth, this cactus has been protected and can no longer be cut. Only if the tree has fallen down can it be used. (ha, ha, this is Chile, who is going to control this?) I recall the roof of the church in San Pedro being made of this cactus, which has a beautiful porous look, almost like a sponge.

 

 

I wonder why our guide continues to go further down the canyon. I figure, once you’ve seen one cactus, you’ve seen them all.
But then the stream drops into a small waterfall, which we can reach by very carefully manoeuvring over the rocks, helping each other when needed.
Cactus Tours has delivered another exciting day for us. it was well worth the money.

By the time we return to our Hostel, it is well past lunch time and we talk about making a fresh salad with some shellfish from a can and a nice cold glass of wine.
But we’re in for a surprise; Our room has been booked. Are we willing to move next door for our last night here? It has two single beds instead of one double.
We negotiate a better price and I start  moving all our belongings.


My instinct tells me to pay now, so there won’t be any surprises later. Just when I am done unpacking all our stuff again and start making our lunch, Ramiro returns. “We’re out of here”. 
In order to recouperate the loss on the “deal” we made, they add 5% Credit Card Charge on the total price of all four days.
“OK, no problem, I’ll pack up everything again, but will eat something in between and you can go and find us another place”. He finds us a much nicer place, close by and we do get that cold glass of wine after all, albeit it much later than planned.
With the late lunch and all the Coca tea we have been drinking, we have no appetite and turn in quite early, After all, we;ve been up since 3:00 am.