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| Fresh snow on the drive to El Tatio Geyser |
One of the most surprising things we've found around San Pedro de Atacama over the past five days is the amount of water. After all, this area is classified as "desert". We have learned that they do actually get some rainfall here, usually in February. There are sections of the Atacama that have never recorded a measurable amount of rain. The majority of water that we have seen has been the result of snow melting at higher elevations or water seeping up from below the surface. Today we journeyed to two destinations where there was plenty of geothermal water, not only to see but to get in and enjoy as well.
The El Tatio Geyser Field is located about 50 miles north of San Pedro de Atacama. There are around 80 active geysers within an area that looked to be about one square mile in size. El Tatio is the third largest geyser field in the world, behind Yellowstone National Park and the Valley of the Geysers in Russia. It does have the distinction of being the world's highest geyser field at just over 14,000 feet.
We arrived around 10:30 AM. We didn't beat the crowds, the crowds had already left. For some strange reason the tour companies that take people to the geysers leave San Pedro de Atacama at 4:30 AM. which would have them arriving at around 6:00. As we were driving up the narrow, somewhat bumpy road we passed at least 20 vans and mini-buses filled with tourists heading down. This made us smile because we could see no one heading our direction. I don't know what they see at 6:00 AM, but what we saw at 10:30 was magnificent and there were less than 10 other people in sight. Another unique feature at El Tatio is that they have created a natural bottom "swimming pool". There were four young ladies getting out when we arrived. Once they left we had the place to ourselves. The water was warm and occasionally hot when you got over an underground spring. The air temperature was probably around 30 degrees with a little bit of a wind blowing. The water felt great on our chilled bones and oxygen deprived muscles!
After a nice soak in the pool we dressed and spent a little more time looking at the geysers. We jokingly referred to it as "old geezers looking at geysers". Then we headed to our next destination, the Puritama Hot Springs.
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| Happiness is having the worlds third largest geyser field to yourself! |
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| The pool at El Tatio |
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| Warming up the bones and soothing the muscles |
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| Fun with geyser steam |
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| ……...more fun with geyser steam! |
The Puritama Hot Springs were actually on the way back towards San Pedro de Atacama. It was suggested to visit them after El Tatio. We thought that was a good idea, especially since there is a discount after 2:00 PM! The hot springs are a series of eight pools of flowing geothermal water that are located in a canyon. The water in the first pool was around 90 degrees and continued to get a bit cooler further downstream. We enjoyed spending time in three of the eight different pools, soaking up the water and the scenery at the same time.
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| Looking down into the canyon at the Puritama Hot Springs |
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| I hope I wasn't too much of a distraction to the couple on the right! |
For as much fun as the destinations were, the journey was equally amazing. As we climbed higher on the drive to El Tatio we got into areas with several inches of fresh snow. We even had a couple of minutes of light flurries. Strangely, when we drove back through the area less than two hours later it was gone. There were no puddles on the ground to be seen, it was if it had evaporated in the dry air instead of melted.
In addition to the snow, we had a great animal show. We saw at least one hundred vicunas grazing along the side of the road. We also saw burros, llamas, a flamenco and multiple species of other birds. The highlight of the wildlife spotting were the foxes. We had a couple of times where we stopped to take their picture and they would come right up to the car.
We finished the day with a nice pizza from a restaurant in town called Adobe and drove home to an amazing sunset. A wonderful way to close the curtain on our last full day in San Pedro de Atacama!
