Before we continued our journey to Arica we did another day trip to the "Geysiers "El Tatio""which lie in about 4.300 m altitude in the Atacama desert. The steaming geysiers can only be fully apreciated very early in the morning just before the sunrise and some time after the sun has come out (7:00 a.m.) because then the sun gets too strong and the steam evaporates more quickly and the "show is over".
Since the geysiers are 150 km away from the city (120km of that on dirt roads) we had to get up at 4 a.m. :-( and try to find our way with our rented car in the middle of the dark.
We were a bit worried since most people we asked beforehand in town did not know there was a direct way to the geysiers at all; we ourselves had 3 maps which showed 3 different versions of the area.. more or less detailed and/or reliable....
That we made it in time was thanks to a guy we met in a very small town called "Chiu Chiu" at 5 a.m who was probably going home after a long night in a bar :-) . nonetheless he could point out the direction we had to take - more or less clearly :-) ... and we had some luck in choosing at several crossroads ... but it was a hard race against time and the sun beginning to rise ... (Remark Renate: guess we chose the wrong type of tire...damn mechanics; we should have hired those from the Ferrari team...but who listens to a woman in matters of cars!)
The geysiers where very impressive and at about 9:00 all the tourist buses left and we had them all for us. We took a bath in one of the hot pools of the geysiers with a scenic panorama and after changing into a bikini at about 0 C (brrr..) the water was nice and warm (ca. 38 C) and the nearer you got to the geysiers emitting the hot water the warmer it got till you reached the point where it got "bloddy hot" (85 C) as an american said :-)
Who can say of himself that he took a warm termal bath in 4.300 m altitude with the most wonderful background? We can, we can :-) !!!
Best regards to all of you! Renate & Mirko
Since the geysiers are 150 km away from the city (120km of that on dirt roads) we had to get up at 4 a.m. :-( and try to find our way with our rented car in the middle of the dark.
We were a bit worried since most people we asked beforehand in town did not know there was a direct way to the geysiers at all; we ourselves had 3 maps which showed 3 different versions of the area.. more or less detailed and/or reliable....
That we made it in time was thanks to a guy we met in a very small town called "Chiu Chiu" at 5 a.m who was probably going home after a long night in a bar :-) . nonetheless he could point out the direction we had to take - more or less clearly :-) ... and we had some luck in choosing at several crossroads ... but it was a hard race against time and the sun beginning to rise ... (Remark Renate: guess we chose the wrong type of tire...damn mechanics; we should have hired those from the Ferrari team...but who listens to a woman in matters of cars!)
The geysiers where very impressive and at about 9:00 all the tourist buses left and we had them all for us. We took a bath in one of the hot pools of the geysiers with a scenic panorama and after changing into a bikini at about 0 C (brrr..) the water was nice and warm (ca. 38 C) and the nearer you got to the geysiers emitting the hot water the warmer it got till you reached the point where it got "bloddy hot" (85 C) as an american said :-)
Who can say of himself that he took a warm termal bath in 4.300 m altitude with the most wonderful background? We can, we can :-) !!!
Best regards to all of you! Renate & Mirko
1 comment:
CANNOT! but i,m sure you haven´t been to sheepmountainbath this year, hm?
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