The geyser trip was a success as I found a different spot in town that runs Sunday tours. After a false alarm last night around 8pm with the tourist agency initially saying that the cops closed the geyser park for today due to bad weather (which obviously would have cancelled our trip), they changed their minds last minute and we ended up going this morning at 4am. Well worth the 3:45 wakeup.
El Tatio is the name of the geyser park and it holds the highest altitude geysers in the world at 4,750 meters (almost 15,000 feet), and it puts Old Faithful to shame. There are geysers everywhere. Dozens and dozens of them. And it´s not like you sit in some bleachers and wait for one to erupt - you literally walk around the field and there are steaming pits and shooting water everywhere you look, some big, many smaller. Definitely dangerous (the welcome station hands out tourist brochures that include how to treat burn victims), but truly a sight with the snow-capped mountains and volcanoes in the background.
After a tour of the grounds and some breakfast, we walked to some of the bigger ones that have strict paths you have to follow when viewing them, then we had the chance to go for a dip in the hot springs there. Was awesome, but freezing when we got out (only three of our group of twelve went in) - was 10 degrees Celsius below zero when we arrived at 6:30 but was slightly warmer when we went for a swim. Unreal.
I think San Pedro has been my favorite stop yet as it is such a unique place and has a lot of personality for a small town. Was a great stay, and I am leaving here tonight for Arica which is a coastal surf town and one of the northern-most in Chile. Should be a good stopping point before heading north into Peru.
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