Friday, April 11, 2008

Cold, so cold...



We made the trip to see the El Tatio Geyser field. The geysers are at their most active between 6.30am and 7.30am, and they are a 2 hour drive from San Pedro... So, in order to see the geysers do their thing we got out of bed at 3.50am - I know, stupid right?

The geyser field is at 4200m (13,800 ft) which at 6am in the morning translates to really fucking cold... -8.5 celcius, or 16.5 farenheit to be precise.

There are about 80 active geysers, and the erupt at varying heights with the tallest being 6 meters. Cold underground rivers met with hot volcanic rock underground, and hey presto the only way is up!
In summary, we got out of bed at ridiculous o'clock to see a bunch of holes in the ground spurt stinky water and steam into the air, whilst freezing ourselves to death. Nuts.

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