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El Tatio Geysers, Chile
Oct. 26th - Freezing by the steam vents, by TD
 Happy 50th birthday to me. Unfortunately it
began with a 4 AM pick up for a tour of the El Tatio Geysers.
The night sky is unpolluted with manmade light in the Andes
and the stars were just spectacular. We saw the Southern Cross
and Orion (upside down). The trip took 3 hours on "terrible"
dirt roads. It was grueling. We climbed to 4000 meters.
Arriving before the sun rose on a valley full of steam vents.
I was disappointed that they didn't shoot sprays like Old
Faithful. We weren't dressed warmly enough.
 It was -5C. We
knew it would be cold but not that cold. The valley
floor was an unusual act of nature. As the sun rose and warmed
us up, it also distorted the sight of the steam. We all
agreed, we could have done without the experience because of
the pain of travel. The trip is one of the big "to do's" in
San Pedro, so I guess you're expected to do it.
The trip back to San Pedro was a little
easier. Most of it is downhill. Along the way we saw the
countryside that had been cloaked in darkness. There were some
interesting animals to view. We saw a native rabbit called the
mountain vizcacha, it has a long straight tail and almost
green beige fur for camouflage. You can't imagine how odd a
green rabbit is. There were also some ground birds the same
color. One alpine lake provided us with a flock of flamingoes.
We spent the afternoon at the pool again
and were surprised at the lack of patrons for a Sunday
afternoon. After another delicious dinner at La Casona, the
wait and kitchen staff came out with a small ice cream cake,
candles and all serenading me with Happy Birthday in Spanish.
This day was not the 50th birthday that dreams are made of but
are they ever? DW says my life is perfect just being married
to her!! I guess my dreams are coming true with a trip around
the world drinking cheap wine and eating dust bunnies.
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We went to the geysers outside of San
Pedro. My Dad was very mad because they did not shoot
out water, only steam. The guide book says to wear warm
clothes and we did but not warm enough. It was -5
degrees C (23 degrees F) so we were very cold. There was
a punch buggy that wouldn’t start so they tried to push
start it and it still wouldn’t start.
On the way back to the hotel we saw several different
types of animals. There were rabbits called mountain
vizcacha, llamas, vicuna and two kinds of birds. The
mountain vizcacha were the coolest. My Mom saw the first
one and I thought it was a bush. The oddest thing was
that the birds and mountain vizcacha were all green.
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