29.03.23

At 4:30 am, the tour guide knocks on the door downstairs, I'm halfway dressed. Afterwards, we visit other hotels with the Sprinter until almost all 15 spots are filled. An illustrious group of travelers with Colombians, an Israeli, a German, a Peruvian, Koreans, Brazilians, Argentinians, and Chileans. There is a bumpy road for 1.5 hours until the El Tatio geyser field. When we arrive, it is still dark. The guide explains the basics about the functioning of the geysers and warns against too risky selfies. A French tourist stumbled backwards into a geyser pool a few years ago and was boiled alive. It's super misty. An armada of about 30 other Sprinters is already parked in the parking lot. "Chocopanda" is our guide's call to gather everyone, so that 14 guests won't get lost in the misty tourist soup. Sounds like fun.

The geysers themselves are a bit disappointing. No towering water columns like in the photos, but rather like the boiling fountain in Wiesbaden. The guide tells us that there were several attempts to use the area for geothermal energy, but there was an incident where a 70m high fountain shot up for hours. After that, the protest from the indigenous people, who consider this area sacred, was so great that the project was abandoned.

After visiting various bubbling pools, we drive a bit and have breakfast with a view of the geysers from a distance. Along the way, we see many vicuñas (the original form of llamas, which cannot be domesticated). The stop at Laguna Verde is a highlight, in the green oasis there are vicuñas, a few flamingos, and viscachas (a type of chinchilla).

At noon, we are dropped off again in the center of San Pedro and I walk back in full winter gear in the heat.

I spend the rest of the day mostly in bed. In the evening, I buy some snacks for tomorrow's tour to the Salar de Uyuni.