We had to wake up at the crack of dawn to get picked up for our tour of the Tatio Geysers, the third largest geyser field in the world. It was dark and cold and we drove for an hour and a half to get the to geyser field. Our guide and driver prepared breakfast while took photos and waited for the sun to rise. The geyers sit at 4,321m (14,176.5 ft) so we were both a little winded due to the thin air. The main reason all the tours visit the geyseys for sunrise is because you can see the steam the best.
After the sun had come up we departed for our second stop, a hot stream fed by water from the geysers. I was too cold to get in the water. Instead, Amy and I dipped our frozen tootsies in the water. It was hot! Our guide said it was about 35 degrees Celsius.
We drove some more and got out to walk along the Río Putana. There we saw several types of birds. We also had a great view of Volcano Licancabur.
Our final stop was a hillside covered in cacti. We learned that due to the extreme climate in the Atacama, they only grow about 1cm per year. That puts the 5m high cacti that we saw at 500 years old! We hiked into a canyon to see plenty more cacti and a small waterfall.
Our tour ended at 2pm and we were dead tired. We went back to our guesthouse to rest up for another tour we had that night. A French astronomer has setup a small observatory just outside of San Pedro (in Solor) and he hosts star tours. The only picture we have from that night was one that Amy took of Saturn through one of the telescopes. Due to the high altitude and thin dry air, the view of the stars was stunning.
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