Today we arose at the stupid hour of 4:00am for pick up at 4:30. Having been picked up we then drove around town for half an hour picking up other people (we went within 20 metres of our hotel 4 times). Then off to see the Geyser del Tatio. All the tours leave at this time and we didn’t think that our car would make it on the rough roads (Lonely Planet’s words). Turns out the roads weren’t that rough, but don’t know if our little car would have made it. It turns out that he reason they leave so early is not for a spectacular sunrise, but so that it will be colder (well below zero at 4,300 metres), and the geysers will look more impressive due to being steamier. What? That’s stupid! I could be asleep you ar….oles, not stuck on a bus with loud rude French people.
Being absolutely knackered really took the gloss off the trip. It was pretty, and water did spurt out of the ground, and a dip in the thermal pools was nice until the French started yelling to each other at the top of their voice (they were 2 metres apart) and barging anywhere they wanted to go.
We also saw a few Vicacha (look like daggy long tailed rabbits, but are a member of the Chinchilla family) mucking about, and plenty of Vicunas, both of which looked delicious.
We stopped at a local village on the way back …
… and a valley with some cool cacti in it.
But we were both a bit over it. Back at 13:00, we dumped our stuff and went and had a nice lunch and a couple of ales which improved our moods.
A quick wander around the local museum and a nap filled in the afternoon.
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