Atacama 19 March
Alarms at 5am and a 5.30am departure with Danielo our guide.
We were heading off for a 2 hour drive to sunrise at El Tatio Geysers.
The stars were unbelievable even with a partial moon and we
got out a one of the high points to look. It was so weird as the constellations
here are either completely different to ours or they are upside down !
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| Just before sunrise - these geysers are over 40m tall |
The road climbed consistently and when we arrived we were at
4400m. The air was so thin and full of Sulphur but we could immediately see why
sunrise was the time to go.
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A low blanket of steam covers the whole site -
about 10km2 in total with the two sites |
The clouds of volcanic steam bursting into the cold
atmosphere of the early dawn was just spectacular especially with the snowy
Andes peaks as backdrop and we watched and photographed through the next 0m two
hours as jets created a fog of steam punctuated by columns of steam sometimes 40m in the air.
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| Cant see a thing .... |
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The people walking though steam
show the scale of the geysers |
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| The moment of sunrise - a breathtaking moment |
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We liked it so much,
we posed 2 pictures |
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So, to end a perfect morning,
breakfast on the glaziers after everyone had gone |
We were the only people left at the site and Danielo had brought some breakfast with him and the three of us sat drinking coffee watching the last of the vapour disappear as the sun warmed the temperature up and no more
steam was visible. Just
wonderful !
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Long roads but never
without stunning scenary |
Originally, the geothermal field was developed by a Italian company but due to mal-practice, there was an explosion and the remains of the plant and accommodation are still around.
This old pump remains in the middle of the filed.
We headed back down the stunning road which we had driven up
in the dark with no idea what we were passing, stopping at a pretty wetlands
area, but the mountains were the stars of the show. The road passed close to
Licancabur, the live volcano and every corner we turned the view was more
spectacular.
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| Vicuna and baby - seen on the way |
Along the way, there was loads of wildlife and you could stop at every
This volcano has the remains of
a mine track going up into the crater where Sulphur was mined until President Pinochet closed it down. This is at well over 5500m so we could not imagine how people could breath at this height although we were beginning to realise that here in South America, people had not just faced poverty but the nautural enemies of geology and climate to survive.
By the time we got back, the heat and the altitude was
taking its toll. We headed off downtown for a Bolivian beer and a pizza before going off
later in the evening to look at the stars with an astronomy guide. Steve who
knows this subject well, was still feeling a bit rough from the altitude and we
had opted for an early night and left Janette,
Mandy and Paul to go star gazing.
It was
great, they had a little astronomical dome and a good telescope with
auto tracking. We started off just sitting outside looking at the night sky
which was just stunning. The milky way was bright and dense and the clarity of
the sky meant we could see things not visible in the UK with the naked eye,
like Orion’s shield.
With the telescope, we had a good look at the Pleiades and
at the Omega Centuria star cluster which is only visible in the southern hemisphere.
It was just incredible, over 2 million stars and looked just like a
kaleidoscope through the telescope. Jupiter was the planet that was clearly
visible and we could see its stripes clearly but not the spot as it was on the back side. We also saw 3 of its moons clearly.
All very impressive, the skies are crystal clear and the altitude and lack of
any pollution made it just the best viewing conditions.
Its not for nothing that the largest telescopes in the world
are sited at the Alma Observatory which is just outside San Pedro de Atacama
and can be easily seen from the road into town.
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