Day Three from the Southern Hemisphere

Trip to the desert, continued...

On Day 3 we pulled out all the stops. The preparation actually started the night before when we had to trick ourselves to go to bed early. Turns out it wasn’t that difficult. The day’s activities had us hungry earlier, and the lack of electricity meant an extreme darkness set in and a calm we never hear in Santiago.

On day 3 we got up at 3am to go see the Geysers del Tatio. The tours leave this early so that you can get to the geysers just before sunrise because that’s when you see the best contrast between the steam and the freezing air outside. Literally freezing! It was -14°C (6.8°F) when we arrived! We were dressed in many layers as we walked among the steaming geysers. The first place we stopped had been left completely natural so you could walk right up to the geysers at your own risk. After about a half an hour freezing are butts off there, the guide made hard boiled eggs, coffee and hot chocolate (which I loved and am still craving!) by putting all of these things directly in the geysers. Then we drove a little further to see some more geysers. The locals had built paths and walls around these geysers and even made a large enough hot spring that we could get into.

Now, how many times in your life do you get to go swimming at 4,500 meters in a natural hot spring when it’s lower than freezing outside? You gotta do it, right? At least that’s what I told Flaco. He fell for it too! So there we are, in the freezing cold, trying to strip down as fast as possible (which is not easy because of all the layers) so we can get into what we are told is hot water…it’s not. It’s luke warm water…ah well… So how many times do you get to go swimming at 4,500 meters in a natural WARM spring when it’s below freezing outside? The really hard part of course comes when you have to get out. Somehow I was elected to get out first because I “know how to change under a towel by myself” and Flaco doesn’t. (did I mention that there are no changing rooms or privacy of any sort?)

The good thing is that after you’ve shocked your body by climbing out of the water into the below freezing air, you don’t need more than a sweatshirt and pants to keep warm. Forget the parka, gloves, scarf and other inner layers you had on before! After that we all piled on the bus to head back to San Pedro. We stopped along the way at a small village and again along the side of the road to take a picture of the view.

But our day did not end here, I assure you!

After lunch in San Pedro we got on bikes to head to the Lagunas Cejar. Yes, ladies and gentleman, bicycles. Please remember that it has been many years since I have been on one, but then again the old saying “it’s just like riding a bike” has to come from somewhere, doesn’t it?? As it would turn out, that saying does not seem to account for the butt-bicycle seat factor. Flaco and I were worried about our legs getting tired, having trouble breathing at the high altitudes, and general body exhaustion due to our largely sedentary lifestyles, but none of those things were problematic. I did feel like I was getting a leg cramp at one point, but my muscles were never tired or anything. The butt was a different story. It was a 17km trip each way (34km total or just over 21 miles).

The scenery was of course beautiful, the road was a different story. We were just riding through the desert so it was EXTREMELY bumpy (extremely in this sentence is pronounced with the same enthusiasm as my grandmother’s “ENORMOUS”) and when it wasn’t bumpy you were trying to ride through 6-12 inches of very fine sand. Now someone who is experienced (with recent experience that is) at riding a bike would spend most of the trip standing up and pedaling. I, however, did not have that option. It was difficult enough to muscle-steer the bike through the bumps and sand that I couldn’t stand up.

So I sat.
On the tiny bicycle seat.
For 17 kilometers.
Of very bumpy roads.

Actually, on the way to the lagoons it wasn’t that bad (you know, with a fresh butt and all). The lagoons are very pretty. Part of their lure is that it isn’t logical that they are there. Nobody can explain why the water came up from so deep to form them. And the water of course is very salty so even I could float! Your feet literally pop out of the water. Now I know why Grandma Sandy finds it so relaxing to float in the water!

Unfortunately there are extreme temperature differences in the water in the lagoons. Theoretically the top of the water is very cold and the bottom (where your feet float if you push them down) is hot because that’s where the hot springs are coming out. In practice however I found it to be largely variable. Your right hand may be very hot and your left, freezing. And for some reason there are currents, so the hot and cold places are constantly changing.

Our guide brought a bottle of tap water so that we could rinse the salt off our arms before we left. The problem is that when you swim in salt water, salt tends to get in places that salt should not go. And then you have to get back on a bike with a tiny bicycle seat and ride for another 17km over very bumpy roads! Ah!

Needless to say, the ride back was not pleasant. My behind was already battered from the ride in when I got on the bike to go back. Every single bump was like some sort of Chinese torture. At the beginning we could talk about unrelated things to help occupy our minds, but by mid-journey that did not help and by the end there was nothing to do. It was pitch black by the time we got into town and after turning in our bikes we went to the room.

As soon as the door shut I broke down into tears, “my poor butt!” Ufff…live and learn: getting back on the bike is easy, it’s the bumps that screw ya!

We planned to have a nice dinner at Adobe that night with a nice bottle of wine since it was our last night in San Pedro. Well, after getting up at 3am to go up to 4,500 meters then coming back down and riding 34 kilometers to the lagoons, we were a bit tired. We went to the nice restaurant, ordered the nice food and the nice wine and immediately regretted it. We both sat in relative silence as we waited for a food, both daydreaming about crawling into bed (laying on sides or stomachs of course to avoid more damage to the buttocks) and going to sleep.

But the food was good and the wine was excellent and crawling into bed was even better!