Our second day in the desert began with an extremely early morning start…4am to be precise! We joined a tour heading to the El Tatio geysers. My family had tried to do this tour when we were here last but our vehicle broke down – so I was super excited to have another chance to do this.  Despite the bumpy road we managed to sleep some of the way there, and arrived in the dark just before 7am. We stepped out of our nice heated bus into -8 degree weather – quite a shock to the system! We walked around the geyser field, and watched the sun come up over the volcanos surrounding us.  The geysers were small but numerous, spread all across a large field. It was quite cool to watch them as the early morning light hit them.

We then drove around the field to have breakfast – then got changed into our togs and ran into the natural hot spring which was there. Being in the water felt great – getting in and out was painful! The geyser field is also at a height of 4,200 metres and we could feel the altitude – it made me a little short of breath and I found breathing harder.

On the way down from the geysers we stopped at a traditional village and tried the meat kebabs, as well as looking around the village and at the church.

We saw some native birds and vicunas (like smaller llamas).

We also stopped to see a giant cactus!

I was really glad to finally get to do this tour! Next post – Valle de la Luna and our bicycle adventure there.