San Pedro de Atacama Tours (Third Day)
The third day of touring consisted of a morning tour (Tatio Geyser) and an afternoon tour (Valle de Lunes or Moon Valley). This time I had to get up at 4:00 in the morning, as I was going to see the Tatio Geyser at sunrise. Except I did not wake up 4:00am, but rather opted to stay up all night.
I was supposed to be picked up by the bus between 4:30 and 5:00, but was picked up at 5:10 instead. I have to admit, I feared that the tour company had forgotten about me, as each tour bus picked up other tourists on my street until there were none left except me. But I knew that this was a near impossibility, since something would have to seriously go wrong for me not to be picked up. These tour companies are usually fairly diligent, and have never failed to pick me up. However, the Brazilian couple that had befriended me on a previous tour were not on the bus. Later I found out that they were not picked up by the tour company, because the tour company could not locate their hotel. Time was of the essence as the bus had to arrive to the Tatio geysers before sunset, and it took about 90 minutes to get there, so I'm assuming that after a few minutes of failing to find them, the tour company decided to cut bait and run. I felt horrible for the Brazilian couple, especially since they had opted to call it an early night before the tour in order to wake up at 4am. I still do not know how this could happen, since San Pedro is a relatively small town, and the tour company should already know every hostel or hotel, and if not, they could have easily located any hotel using Google Maps.
However, Jacyline (the Chilean) was on-board the bus, and we ended up having a great time during the tour, using my translation application on my phone to communicate with each other. Her spunkiness and great energy were much appreciated for such an early morning tour. I tried to sleep during the bus ride to the Tatio geysers, especially since I had not slept the night before, but the rough dirt roads made this impossible. Every five seconds, the bus would shake, tat-tat-tat-tat, as it hit each series of bumps in the road.
But it was well worth it as I got to see this:
Now the funny thing is that my tour itinerary initially stated to bring swim clothes, but then crossed it out, so I did not bother to bring my swim trunks on the tour--neither did Jacyline. So we just looked at each other, and there was no translation needed. We were going in no matter what. It was freezing out, and that water was way too tempting. So, she went in her shirt and shorts, and I stripped off everything except my briefs. It was good that they happened to be black that day, as my usual tightie whities would have caused too much of a spectacle. But, honestly, there were a few European men in there that were rocking their speedos, so they were actually exposed more in the junk area than I was.
Even though the Tatio Geyser tour was billed as an all-day tour, it started so early that I was able to fit in the Valle de Lunes tour, which was equally impressive. Whereas on other tours where I am typically one of the oldest, if not the oldest, person, on this tour I was actually the youngest person. I met my first American on this tour, and got to talk to a lot of retirees. I felt so young again. Valle de Lunes should have been named Valle de Martes, because it looks much more like the surface of Mars, then the Moon.
I then had a nice picnic, and watched the sunset at Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley).
I have to say that this is the first time in my life that I had watched both the sunrise and the sunset in the same day.
#vagabonding #vagabondism #travel #instatravel #travelgram #tourist #tourism #vacation #traveling #Chile #San Pedro de Atacama #Atacama Desert
I was supposed to be picked up by the bus between 4:30 and 5:00, but was picked up at 5:10 instead. I have to admit, I feared that the tour company had forgotten about me, as each tour bus picked up other tourists on my street until there were none left except me. But I knew that this was a near impossibility, since something would have to seriously go wrong for me not to be picked up. These tour companies are usually fairly diligent, and have never failed to pick me up. However, the Brazilian couple that had befriended me on a previous tour were not on the bus. Later I found out that they were not picked up by the tour company, because the tour company could not locate their hotel. Time was of the essence as the bus had to arrive to the Tatio geysers before sunset, and it took about 90 minutes to get there, so I'm assuming that after a few minutes of failing to find them, the tour company decided to cut bait and run. I felt horrible for the Brazilian couple, especially since they had opted to call it an early night before the tour in order to wake up at 4am. I still do not know how this could happen, since San Pedro is a relatively small town, and the tour company should already know every hostel or hotel, and if not, they could have easily located any hotel using Google Maps.
However, Jacyline (the Chilean) was on-board the bus, and we ended up having a great time during the tour, using my translation application on my phone to communicate with each other. Her spunkiness and great energy were much appreciated for such an early morning tour. I tried to sleep during the bus ride to the Tatio geysers, especially since I had not slept the night before, but the rough dirt roads made this impossible. Every five seconds, the bus would shake, tat-tat-tat-tat, as it hit each series of bumps in the road.
But it was well worth it as I got to see this:
. . . and got to experience this:
Now the funny thing is that my tour itinerary initially stated to bring swim clothes, but then crossed it out, so I did not bother to bring my swim trunks on the tour--neither did Jacyline. So we just looked at each other, and there was no translation needed. We were going in no matter what. It was freezing out, and that water was way too tempting. So, she went in her shirt and shorts, and I stripped off everything except my briefs. It was good that they happened to be black that day, as my usual tightie whities would have caused too much of a spectacle. But, honestly, there were a few European men in there that were rocking their speedos, so they were actually exposed more in the junk area than I was.
Even though the Tatio Geyser tour was billed as an all-day tour, it started so early that I was able to fit in the Valle de Lunes tour, which was equally impressive. Whereas on other tours where I am typically one of the oldest, if not the oldest, person, on this tour I was actually the youngest person. I met my first American on this tour, and got to talk to a lot of retirees. I felt so young again. Valle de Lunes should have been named Valle de Martes, because it looks much more like the surface of Mars, then the Moon.
I have to say that this is the first time in my life that I had watched both the sunrise and the sunset in the same day.
#vagabonding #vagabondism #travel #instatravel #travelgram #tourist #tourism #vacation #traveling #Chile #San Pedro de Atacama #Atacama Desert
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