Off for an early start, at 4am, I am standing with two other guys from the same hostel on the street waiting for pick up. In fact, down the street, from other hostels and hotels, there are other people waiting as well. Every night is like this, apparently. For a second, I feel like we are some garbage standing outside the door waiting to be collected in the middle of the night, or a second thought, We are up some indecent business. The whole deal of individual or group of people standing outside of a hotel in the middle of the night, it just looks weird. At 4:15am, our van arrive, the same guide and driver again, I have had them 3 days on a row. Does this town only have this guide and driver?! Comparatively a smaller crowds, that may explain why it arrives sooner than I expected. It's a long ride to the geysers, almost 2 hours. As we go up the hill, bumpy roads, I can definitely feel the cold. Very cold. I have a down jacket in my backpack in the hotel and I have not brought it along!! I start to regret. I have 5 layers of clothes though, so my body is ok, only my fingers and my toes are freezing!
At the crack of dawn, we arrive the El Tatio geysers, the sky has just started to change colors, from a bruise purple to a little pink, add a hint of blue, some white... no one can stop it nor care really, since it's freaking cold on the geysers field parking lot. We pay the entrance, I am still using my student ID and get a discount. I have saved a lot of money from bringing that ID with me in this trip! In the greyish dark, I can see the smoke coming off the steam holes in the geysers field. It's rather interesting. At 4310m, one of the highest geysers field in the world, we are waiting for the sun to come out. Get back into the car, since my fingers and toes are getting numb. We wait for a little bit and then we drive into the field and stop at another parking lot, where we get off. The guide leads us into the field. There are not much explaining really, some basic stuffs like how it is formed, and the kind of steamholes there are. A huge geysers hole can shoot up burning water at 85C to 10m height. We witness some. After we walk pass one side of the field, we have breakfast, hot coffee with cheese sandwiches, and crackers and stuffs. The hot coffee is good even though they are instant. I need to inject some hot liquid into my body at -8 C.
We get to another field where we stay for an hour, some people jump into the hot spring and bath themselves for fun. I wish I bring my swim trunks. But it's too cold really. I do have felt the water, the temperature is very comfortable. In that hour, I wander around the field on my own, try to be super careful, since we are warned some places may look solid, but it's very fragile and underneath are water that can burn you alive. I am warned by whistle once by a guard to tell me not to go any further. It's an interesting site to visit after seeing many ruins, and churches in South America. In Atacama Desert, I am seeing something more natural, deserts, valleys, lakes, volcanoes and now geysers field. Before we head back to town, we stop at a few places on the way to take pictures and at a tiny little town where we wander around for like 20 mins. Get back to town before noon actually. My backpack has already been moved out of the room. The check out time is 11:00am, that's why. Anyway, I have lunch, at the same place I have lunch the first day, since I want a good and a big meal. Doesn't look like I will have time for dinner, with the bus and flight today.
Successfully find my bus to Calama at 2:20pm. That bus is actually heading to Santiago after making a stop at Calama, I could have stayed on, and will still get to Santiago 20 hours later. On a second thought, I should have done that, so I can save US$150 or more. I just need to sleep on the bus tonight. But oh well, decision to fly to Santiago was made and I should just feel content that nothing has gone wrong thus far. At Calama bus station, the official taxi to the airport is super expensive. I notice that there are two Germans or Scandinavians (a guy and a girl) trying to catch a taxi to the airport as well. So, I just ask if we can all take a taxi together. At the end, thanks to the fluent Spanish of the guy, we find a taxi for one-third of the cost if we have taken one of the official taxi. Sweet. Calama's airport is small, but rather clean and modernized. Off the runaway, it's the desert and some naked hills look like potatoes (badly deformed ones). Sometimes, looking at views like this, I wonder where have I got myself into. On the other hand, it feels pretty cool. The flight journey from Calama to Santiago is calm at least. The northern part of Chile is completely dry, just desert and bare rocks, no green, don't know how people live there. But they do.
Get to Santiago, the transfer bus to the hotel is easy. Back to the big city, feel familiar with its convenience and but at the same time feeling a bit out of place with my backpack. The hotel is not cheap, although it is centrally located and its exterior looks expensive, inside is another story. Not sure if I like that kind of old style. No, actually, just old, no style. It is getting hotter as I go south. I want to throw away some heavy clothes off my 19kg backpack, not like I am going to wear them very often in Hong Kong. But the frugal part of me still says No, at least, for now. It has been a really long day. Off to bed. Tomorrow, Valparaiso!
Photos here: Day 42 (El Tatio Geysers), Day 42 (Sunset y Hotel)
