Winter Break Travels-Pt. 3-San Pedro de Atacama

Drive through the desert.....

Debatably the best p&s picture I have taken on this trip. San Pedro at dusk with Vulcan Licancabur in the background.
or maybe this one...
San Pedro de Atacama. Famous as a high desert oasis, which allowed for early indigenous (and now tourist life) for centuries. The majority of the town lies above 7,900 feet. It is a pretty little town of adobe structures and small dirt streets. In the last 10 years it has become the tourist destination north of Santiago. Almost every shop in town is either a shop selling assorted llama clothing or is a tour company. Because much of the beauty here needs to be accessed by car, tour companies make a killing shuttling tourists all around. Regardless of the 'tourist trap' aspect to this town, using tours is worth the money. They take you to some great spots. for example...

El Tatio Geyser tour

3:45 am start....

On the shuttle ride out to the geysers from town. About an hour and 40 minutes. Coldest I have ever been in my life. I did not dress nearly enough for -18 Celsius ~ -1 Fahrenheit. Only sweat pants and a few jackets and a beanie. With all my years of skiing in sub-zero wind chill, I was the least dressed for this trip.

Cameron and I were stoked regardless of the cold, the early start, the back of the bus, car sickness, 2 hours of sleep, and the frozen window.

Here is the van and the geysers just starting to get active, before sunrise.
At this point it was so freezing cold, still well under -10 degrees Celsius.
Breakfast being prepared (sweet tour company).


It was so cold that me and this French lady remained in the van in front of the heaters while everyone at breakfast outside. We did not mind at all. Inside the van we could still see our breath. The geysers go off between 6-8 am. They are best to view early when it is cold and all the steam is visible.
View of the smaller geyser field.


This is some significant geological formation. I was too cold to think. My favorite part of the tour was when we got to walk around. I ran. Our tour guide was hilarious. Like a young santa claus with a giant down jacket and rosy cheeks. He articulated good Spanish. Then said everything again in sing songy english, hilarious to listen to. But I give him credit for trying to accommodate everyone on the tour.

Ya once again, no idea what this thing is, he said it was over a thousand years old I think..

They have a lot of fences and safe, marked paths in Chile. (joke!) Water ran all over the ground in the valley with all these geysers, crazy. Also all of this is occuring at around 13, 800 feet.

Last pic for this post....Part dos for San Pedro on the way......I have a lot of pictures from this place.

In this picture, the protagonist. With one towel over the shoulders for warmth. And two around the waist to keep in the heat on the legs (this works!).
In the background: chile's version of sage brush and stuff coming out of the ground. Again to coold to know if it was just steam or not. Proxima vez, mas abrigado!!