Saturday, December 6, 2014

Atacama: El Tatio Geysers

Our final excursion in Atacama was to the El Tatio Geysers.  We were off well before the sun.  We saved this one for last because we needed to acclimate to the elevation in San Pedro for a few days before we made this huge accent.  Avoiding puking and sickness at all costs was high on my list :)

 By the time we climbed out of the car, the sky was beginning to lighten, the geysers were awake, and the air was extremely frigid.  Time to bundle up and go explore!!!  Thankfully, everyone was feeling great...just a little cold.


El Tatio means "the Grandfather."  It is the highest geyser field in the world and has 80 active geysers making it the 3rd largest in the world.  

 Everywhere we walked, we could here and see the water boiling all around us.  
 There were even some people who brought up eggs to put in the water for boiling!







 Don't get too close, Jake!  We don't want any sudden explosions!


 Yep.  You could say it was a tad chilly.  The kids crack me up in all of the pictures.  They could barely move with all of the snow gear!














 Jake announced that this geyser was a bit smelly.  Yes, if you stand right in it's path, I think that is a safe assumption :)
 We didn't know we had traveled to the moon :)


 Check out the thermal pools up here!  We were advised to stay out of them... not very clean... Didn't have to tell me twice ;)






 




What a place.  This entire trip has felt like we have been on a different planet.

 As we were leaving, we had some visitors.

 How these animals live and survive up here is beyond me!





AMAZING.

We passed a little pueblo on the way home and had to capture the church.  Apparently they sell llama meat to try, but the kids were so exhausted (we were too!)  that we decided to just keep moving.  We had filled our days and nights to the brim and it was fantastic.
We wore these cuties out.