The alarm blared this morning at 5 am. We scrambled to dress in multiple layers for
our early morning excursion to 13,800 feet to see the Geisers del Tatio (Geyser
s). Our group consisted of us and two
other families that we hiked with previously, an Australian couple and their son
who will be competing in the sailing world championships in a 470 class (for
you sailors out there) in Buenos Aires in a couple of weeks, and a British
couple. We were just missing Glenys and
Tony, the first British couple we had met and hiked with yesterday. Oh, by the
way, did I mention our guide was Manfred again.
We really lucked out! We all tried to snooze as best we could (all but
our driver) on the 1 1//2 hour ride, most of which was on bone-jarring,
washboard roads climbing 6000 feet. We
got to the geyser field just as the sun was rising. The van was warm and toasty, but when we
climbed out the contrast certainly woke us from our reverie. The temperature was 23 F but felt much
colder. The humidity was extremely high
because of the geysers especially compared to the 30% or so we had been
experiencing in the desert. Fortunately,
we were prepared, Jeri in her ususal 7 layers, and me in 3.
The geysers were like mini Yellowstone, but concentrated in a
relatively small area. There was also a
hot spring that looked inviting (I actually brought my suit), but the thought
of having to get out of the water in 20 degree temps dissuaded me. I guess I AM getting old. That never would have stopped me in the past.
As the sun rose, the geysers, fumaroles, and mud-pots all looked
spectacular. Also, the temperature began
to rise and it got quite comfortable.
I thought again about the hot spring, but we were invited for breakfast, and since we hadn’t had dinner last night, we were starving. My stomach won out.
The drive home, though still jarring, was great. The scenery was beautiful, and we were
treated to many sightings of vicunas along the road.
The vicuna is the last of the 3 cameloid
species that we would be able to see here in Chile. The fourth, alpacas, are found further north
in Peru. The vicuna is the smallest of
the family, and live at the highest elevation (over 13,000 feet). I guess they have a vicuna line here instead
of treeline since there are no trees. They
are actually very cute animals.
There was a large watering hole next to the road that gave us
great viewing of vicunas feeding, and several waterfowl including the puna
teal, coots and juvenile coots, and goslings.
Further ahead, Geena, one of our British co-travelers, spotted a
vizcacha, a cross between a squirrel and a rabbit (also known as a green
rabbit), sunning on the rocks near the road.
We made one other stop to visit the mountain town of
Muchaca. Our star docent from last
night, Joel, was from this town of shepherds, and today, there are only 4
inhabitants, 2 of his uncles, and 2 aunts.
They survive by selling llama kebabs and handicrafts to tourists. Of note, Joel told us that his family was
featured in the James Bond movie, Quantum Solace which was filmed in the area
(though was supposed to be Bolivia in the movie). We are going to have to re-watch the movie as
soon as we get home. Thank god the llama
kebab line was too long for us to wait- we had to get the Brits, Geena and
Geoff back for their noon departure.
Thus we were spared. We did check
out the church, though. Seems a lot of
church for 4 people.
All of the roads are dotted with little shrines to accident
victims killed in crashes due to excessive speeds, sharp, blind curves, and
sometimes altitude related lightheadedness.
Today we witnessed the immediate aftermath of one of those
accidents. Fortunately and miraculously,
no one was even injured here. We stopped
to offer assistance, but the driver told us that help was on the way and we
were not needed. After that sobering picture,
we continued back to the hotel.
It fortunately did not effect our appetites. We were still calorie deprived from our
skipped meal last night and our early morning excursion and a big lunch sounded
like a great idea.
After lunch, we took a shuttle with our British friends, Glenys
and Tony, into the metropolis of San Pedro de Atacama to check out the town and
maybe do a little shopping. San Pedro
was hot and dusty with wide dirt roads with open drainage sluices along the
street. The majority of the stores were
selling excursions to tourists and alpaca hats, sweaters, ponchos, etc. There were a few restaurants and pensiones
for the budget tourist. The town square
was packed with young hikers and dominated by the church.
We stopped into a few stores looking for a sweater for
Jeri. She couldn’t resist a pretty blue
sweater especially at the price of 14,000 pesos (or about $20). The shopkeeper swore it was alpaca, so,
unless we DNA test the wool, we’ll never know.
But, if we think it’s alpaca, it is alpaca.
This young girl standing on a child bike carrier is something
you don’t see everyday in the U.S. Where
is Child and Family Services when you need them?
We returned from our excursion into town(one hour which was more
than enough time as far as we were concerned,) in time to get ready to go on to
our next activity, mountain biking through El Canyon del Diablo (Devil’s
Canyon) with Joel(our star docent from last night)
and Rocio, one of the guides
in training.
From now on, Jeri and I
have decided to bring bike shorts on all our trips, just in case. Riding in plain old shorts just doesn’t cut
the mustard, though we managed.
The ride was amazing.
After about a mile or so on “good roads”, we veered off across the San
Pedro River into a beautiful canyon. At
some points along the ride, the canyon walls were so close, we had to squeeze
our bikes through on foot. We were both
alittle tentative at the start, nott having much mountain biking experience,
but eventually got into a nice rhythm.
Even the sand we found negotiable until disaster struck. About half-way back, Jeri was flying down the
trail around sharp curves when all of a sudden, going down a short incline she
found some deep sand that acted like a brake for her front wheel. I watched in horror as she did a header over
the handlebars landing face first in the dirt.
I was immediately relieved when she popped with a smile on her face, all
limbs and head intact.
She had a few
scrapes and some really nice bruises, but nothing serious. After our guides broke out the first aid kit
and cleaned and bandaged her (since the injuries were very minor and I just
retired, I allowed them to play doctor), she jumped back on the horse and
continued the ride (albeit somewhat more cautiously), all the time smiling and
continuing to have a great time. I have
to say, my wife is quite a trooper. Her major comment about the incident was
“what would a bike ride in a foreign country be without a fall or two?”
We made it back with no further incidents (except a broken derailleur
within sight of the hotel) in time to shower and have a proper dinner. We planned to eat early (8 pm- not our usual
dinner time but earlier than we had been eating here) and get to bed at a
reasonable hour considering our 5 am start, but we met Glenys and Tony in the
dining room and wound up talking through dinner and well beyond. We really got along very well together, and
planned to try to keep in touch.
On the way back from dinner, we got one more glimpse of the
amazing night sky and particularly the Milky Way. Then some packing and bed. Leaving tomorrow for Santiago and meeting up
with Dave and Molly and Rhonda and Milt.
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