I have been overusing the word 'highlight' quite a lot recently, but San Pedro is proving to be one.
Day 3 in San Pedro was seeing the El Tatio geysers, taking a skin-meltingly-hot natural bath and seeing a cacti-filled canyon. All this in a tour of only five people (including us, the guide and two other Chileans). It was great.
The pre-dawn wake-up calls are coming pretty commonplace, so we thought nothing of the two-hour 4x4 up to the geysers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Tatio) at 4,200m above sea level.
It makes you think what is going on beneath your feet as you wander around a huge area filled with steaming holes in the ground bubbling with boiling water. It's also bloody freezing, so there's the temptation to jump into one! That's until the sun comes up and then it becomes absolutely boiling and the Alpaca gloves, hat and jumper (yes - we've bought those) come off and you're in flip flops and a t-shirt. This whole desert is a place of extremes.
As the day progressed, I found myself trying to imitate photographer Anton Corbijn (http://www.corbijn.co.uk/frameset_photo.htm). There's something about black and white photography and deserts that really works (well, I think so). Below is the cactus field that we visited on our way back, passing through a stunning canyon full of Cardon cacti (one of which is apparently a thousand years old and stood 12 metres high).
We also stopped at this beautiful little church (below) in a tiny little village (now nothing more than a stop for the odd coach tour) called Machuca.
However, the natural hot spring was pretty amazing. It was just the five of us and a boiling hot natural spring. At more than 4,000 metres above sea level it also meant that getting out gave the mother of all head-rushes.
PS - someone in the hostel is reading Kerry Katona's "autobiography." Is this allowed?
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