Almost anyone who comes to San Pedro de Atacama usually ends up having a lack of sleep for at least one day, to visit the Tatio Geysers. I was no exception as I had booked a Geysers tour, which required that I get up at 3.30am.
With less than 4 hours of sleep, I dragged my feet to get ready and waited for the bus pick up to arrive, which came only at about 4.40am.
Our first stop was of course the Tatio Geysers, located about 1.5hrs away from San Pedro de Atacama, and at a height of 4,200m. Upon arrival, Solly who was also on the Sand board tour yesterday, said that the temperature is –6 degree celsius.
I knew it was going to be cold, but I didn’t realise it was going to be THIS cold!
From time to time, I would stop at a Geyser to warm up my feet with some of the hot water that gurgled out, so as to last through visiting most of the surrounding Geysers.
Having seen the one in New Zealand previously, I wasn’t too impressed with the ones here in San Pedro de Atacama. Solly, who had previously been to the Geyser in Iceland, also felt the same.
The geysers here were really mild, and none of them seem to have the sudden hot burst of water exploding in the air, which one would usually see in New Zealand or Iceland.
Breakfast was included with the tour, and served on-site, comprising sandwiches, biscuits, chocolates, hard boiled eggs (boiled with water from Geysers), hot tea and coffee. I quickly poured myself a cup of hot tea, grabbed a sandwich and headed back into the bus to warm up.
I was glad that within half an hour, the sun started to rise over the mountains and provided some warmth, though still not enough to thaw my frozen toes!
There was the option of taking a dip in the pool, and even though I had my swimming gear on, I decided against, since the ambient temperature was too cool, that one would have a hard time trying to get change in the cold weather!
Instead, I took the opportunity to dip my cold frozen feet into the thermal pool to warm up… AHHH!!!
We stayed here for about half an hour before heading off to our next stop – Bofedal de Putana. This is a reserve, where one would be able to see some native birds in the area. We saw a couple of geese as well as some ducks, but that was about it. I wasn’t too impressed!
Views of the nearby mountains was pretty good though!
The last stop – Machuca Village. A small village that seems to survive on the tourists that comes through from the Geysers tour, I felt that they were out to suck tourists’ money.
Kebabs going at CLP 1,500 (about S$4 per stick), requesting for donations inside the church (seems more like a demand than a request!), asking for CLP500 (about S$1.20) for taking a picture of the lady feeding a llama etc. Not too impressed with this village either, as I had seen better in Salta, Argentina.
So as you can probably tell by now, I found today’s tour lack lustre, especially since I had a terrific experience on yesterday’s Sand board and Valle de la Luna tour.
Furthermore, as the Geysers are the big item on this tour, I feel that there are definitely better places for visiting the Geysers in the world.
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