The walls of my room were thin, and my neighbours were noisy. After a couple of hours of sleep I was picked up at 4:30 am for a trip to El Tatio, a field of geysers high up at an elevation of 4300 meters. With around 80 active geysers, it is the biggest geyser field of the southern hemisphere and the third largest in the world. The temperature of the geysers is around 86 °C. Before sun rise, the air is cold enough for the steam plumes to condense in the cold air. They disappear quickly once the sun heats up the air. This is why most tours to el Tatio leave San Pedro long before sun rise.

Nobody of my fellow tour passengers was very talkative in the bus until we arrived at el Tatio. And so I found out pretty late, that I was actually sitting next to a fellow German, Sabine from Mannheim and Berlin. People eased up once we had breakfast next to the geysers in the chilling cold. I was glad that I had brought part of my Antarctica gear along.

After breakfast, we went on to a hot spring, where most took a plunge. Here, I met Maren, and Nina again who had me quickly convinced to jump into the pool as well. Getting in was easy, getting out required some self-persuasion as the air remained cold.

The bus then headed back to San Pedro. We stopped at Machu, a village with 19 inhabitants. Those, who wanted could eat some Lama meat or visit a church.

At the banks of Rio Grande, the bus stopped for another photo opportunity. There were pink flamingos and timid Lamas that made nice pictures.

We returned to San Pedro about 1:00 pm which gave me enough time to organize the next tour to Valley de la Lune that would leave at 3:00 pm.