Hot and Cold

Not much to begin with
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Apparently, the best time to view the El Tatio Geysers is bright and early in the morning when the geothermal activity is at its greatest magnitude. By bright and early, this means some time between 6am and 7am.......which doesn't sound too bad until its taken into consideration that the geysers are 90km away north of San Pedro. So what does all this translate to,  you wonder? A DAMN EARLY 4:30 AM PICK UP AT OUR HOSTEL, THATS WHAT!!!!!

God, I thought they were joking when the tour agency said that they would pick us up at that time.....afterall, who has ever heard of a tour starting that early in the morning?????!!! But the Lonely Planet (or The Bible I should be referring it to these days!) recommended this as one of the tours to do and so even if I only got a few hours sleep in order to be able to witness this amazing natural wonder at its best in all its glory, then so be it. Afterall, what's one night of little sleep hey?

And then ....whoosh!
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Well, what I didn't realise was that I would be getting almost no sleep whatsoever! Ooh did I mention that the festival/carnival was on in town? Well, even though the main celebrations were in town and we had been good and left early at around 11pm to be home and in bed by midnight so we could get a good few hours of sleep.....well, you always know how that goes.... what  you want ....well, it's just a fact that you never going to get it!!!! Yep, we may have left the carnival but the carnival just didn't want to leave us!

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There we were, all in our PJs and snuggled up in bed.....I'd hardly finished wishing Annie goodnight when Annie went..."did you hear that?". "What?" I asked and then I heard it.....in the distance...we heard the band playing. "Oh, maybe they're just finishing off and leaving town" I went. Well, I got that one right, they were in fact leaving town.....to come to us that is! The music became louder and louder, coming in our direction until....it sounded like it was on our doorstep just outside our hostel!!! And then it bloody well stayed there!!!! The band playing away throughout the entire night!!! I am not kidding you!!!! Annie and I hardly slept a wink! And just when I thought that the music had stopped and I finally drifted off to sleep......my alarm went off......it was 3:30am!!! Wakey wakey rise and shine!!!!!!

The geothermal activity building up
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Oh and also remember when I said that the water supply was temperamental in San Pedro....well, this also happened to be one of those mornings with no water. Luckily for Annie and I though, we just beat the queue of other travellers at our hostel who were also up for the same tour. We each dashed to a bathroom (there were 3 in total at the hostel) and managed to get the last cistern of toilet water!!!! Although we both still had to use bottled mineral water to brush our teeth! But at least it was better than the poor Peruvian guy who wanted a shower! He was even going to wake Mother and Roberto to get them to do something about bringing the water back on!!!! At 3:30am in the morning!!!!

Walking around the geysers
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Now the El Tatio Geysers represent the world's highest geothermal field at 4,321m above sea level. They are the result of a frozen underground river making contact with hot rocks and the activity is greatest early in the morning when the built up atmospheric pressure generates huge steam columns that spring from the ground, producing a contrast between the mountains and the deep blue sky.

At so many metres above sea level, the guide was worried about us suffering from altitude sickness....well, I don't suffer from it so I had no reason to chew on (and get high on) the coca leaves that she had brought with her.....but had she brought us extra woolley jumpers then I would have gladly worn them because it was oh so freezing cold up there!!!

Reflection in the morning sun
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We had been warned that the temperatures could be anything down to minus 10 degrees at that altitude and at that time in the morning and we were already decked out in our warmest gear ( me in T-shirt, hoodie x 2(!), fleece, llama wool knee length socks and long trousers).....oh and yes, go ahead and laugh at my bright pink patterned mittens!!! You're just jealous! Bless Annie, we had seen them at the souvenirs market in town and I had pointed them out as they were pink (and as everyone one knows...I'm a real girl and love all things pink!) and she had bought them for me as a surprise to wear to the geysers! But yes...not so sure I would wear baby pink patterned mittens back at home I have to say!!! But they were warm and a right laugh on the tour!!!

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The geysers were indeed spectacular especially looking out across at them in the distance seeing them all dotted about over the ground and even more so owing to the contrast of the snow capped mountains in the back ground and the deep blue sky.  It was truly incredible how one minute, all there was was a tiny bubbling of hot water and then the next minute, the whole thing erupted into gushing clouds of hot white steam, billowing metres and metres into the air. But we did have to be alittle careful where we walked....a few years ago, a German tourist actually fell into one of the geysers and died on the way to the hospital from his burns.

The posh rich people's hot spring!
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Although the morning was freezing cold, as soon as the sun rose, the temperatures increased quickly and a few hours later, we were shedding our numerous layers of clothing particularly since we were ending the tour at the Puritama Hot Springs. The 25-30 degree water at these springs (3,500m above sea level) flowed along a gully forming stepped pools connected by wooden paths. Oh, it was so lovely.....it reminded me of my time spent at The Sanctuary Spa in Covent Garden...I felt like I was in some exotic weekend retreat place!!!! My only grumble was that the nicest pool right at the top was sealed off from the public and only accessible by those staying at the USD 400 a night hotel!!!! Ooh it made me mad especially when I saw that they even had a bar there!!!! And just to make things worse....since their pool was at the top....basically, it was the one with the clearest and purest water...so to put it nicely, the rich people would wash off their crap in there and then their crap would flow into the lower pools where all us commoners bathed!!! So yep, we all had to bath in their crap!!!! Just like in real life then! Oh, it's funny how this life works sometimes!!!