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Thursday, 4 October 2018 - Woke early and drove deep into the Atacama Desert to see the El Tatio geysers at sunrise, climbed to 14,500 ft above sea level to watch steam rise from the geothermal field, enjoyed a tailgate breakfast with views of the steaming hot springs and high Andes, encountered local wildlife like vicuñas and puna teals, returned to Awasi for a late lunch, participated in a hands-on cooking class with Chef Juan Pablo Mardones, and ended the day with a BBQ dinner and stellar stargazing under the clear desert sky.

We were up at 6:00AM and began an early morning 1:45 minute drive in the Atacama Desert to the border of Bolivia to see the El Tatio geysers at sunrise. Even though San Pedro was at 8,000 feet above sea level, you could feel the thinning of the air as we reached an elevation of 14,000 feet.

chilie2018 — Mist from the hot springs in El Tatio.

chilie2018 — El Tatio is the third-largest geyser field in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.

Most of the features are small and do not go very high - maybe 3 feet. The protection offered from the hot water features are painted rocks.

chilie2018 — Sunrise and the steam in the geothermal field

chilie2018 — We learned that the southern part of the Atacama Desert is the driest place on earth so to have water at El Tatio is unique. As we neared El Tatio, we came to the village of Machuca at 14,000 feet. The people who live here sell food to the visitors of Tatio and work as shepherds herding llamas, vicunas and sheep. We topped the highest point at 14,500 feet. In the distance, we could see another volcano which supplies fresh water to this area.

chilie2018 — The four of us were served a tailgate breakfast by our guides and then Darren and David elected to leave after breakfast as Darren was not acclimating to the very high altitudes.

chilie2018 — The geysers are not as spectacular as Yellowstone's Old Faithful but they spout boiling water and steam in multiple places. The spews are not that high and the steam looks more like smoke from a campfire.

chilie2018 — Algae and mineral deposits color the hot springs.

chilie2018 — Cal moving smartly at 14,000 feet

chilie2018 — Most of the water that is discharged by the hot springs is precipitation, which enters the ground east and southeast of El Tatio. The source of heat of the whole complex appears to be the Laguna Colorada caldera.

chilie2018 — Hot springs form pools with water temperatures of 140-176 degrees, which are often gently moving and surging and in the case of the warmer springs actively bubbling.

chilie2018 — We were the last vehicle to leave El Tatio park and we drove past barricades so we could see the view of the Copa Coya Mountains which go East to West from Calama the route provided even better views of the Andes.

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chilie2018 — Cal and Virginia Ann enjoying El Tatio

chilie2018 — The valley where El Tatio park bubbles. Now that the sun is up the geyser steam is no longer visible.

chilie2018 — Seba pointed out the 'Llareta' plant that is like lichen and grows on rocks in the Highlands and can be as fuel and burn when dried out. The Llareta covers many rocks in the area and looks like mounds of moss in the craggy terrain.

'Chuchicandia' is a brittle bush that when crushed can be used as an expectorant for a cold to help open the airflow to the lungs.

chilie2018 — A Giant coot taking some brush back to a nest

chilie2018 — The only active volcano we saw on the trip - and there were a lot of volcanoes.

The small wisps at the top is steam from inside the volcano.

chilie2018 — We saw a couple of Puna Teals.

chilie2018 — We saw several Vicunyas in the highlands who have also adapted to these extremely high elevations. As we left, we saw a body of fresh water where all kinds of birds hung out. The water still has some salt but the birds have adapted to the aquifers.

chilie2018 — The Vicunya wool is the most expensive and softest wool of all. Lora Piano has a relationship with Peru and Bolivia to shear the vicunyas to make into scarves, coats and sweaters. No shearing of vicunyas is allowed in Chile.

chilie2018 — You can see bands of lava rock on the mountainside which flowed down from volcano eruptions many years ago and formed this rock formation when the lava flow stopped.

We made it back to Awasi for a late lunch 1:30 - 3:00PM of beef filet and swordfish with cauliflower soup.

At 6:00PM, David, Cal and I participated in a cooking class with Chef Juan Pablo Mardones. The meals and presentation at Awasi Atacama were the best of the entire trip. We learned how to make beef or chicken empanadas with red pepper flakes and coriander.

That evening was a BBQ dinner with local music. We had a grilled chicken quarter and hangar steak.

chilie2018 — In the evening David and I went with a guide to look up into the very clear skies.

There are two galaxies that are only visible in the Southern Hemisphere. The sky was so beautiful and covered in stars. The Large Magellanic cloud (at the bottom) and its companion dwarf galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud (at the top).

The Large cloud is 30 billion stars and 163,000 light years away and the Small one is only 3 billion stars and 197,000 light years away.

chilie2018 — The Milky Way

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