Living on a Narrowboat
Fun’s over I now have to return to Calama.
I have a tour booked tommorrow in the city.
Misty Andes Hotel
This place looked cheap and innocous.
Surreally, a clown with and consatina neck and extending head follows me in, thanks me for opening the doors.
Morning
At about 6am I hear other guests waking up and vacating their rooms.
This lasts an hour, I go back to sleep.
The tour is at 2pm.
Rather than sit round and do nothing for the rest of the day, took a trip to the place called Aguas Puritama, a water source warmer than normal temperature but not sulphurous, clear and pure.
Hitched
I have hitched up there and the place is closed.
I hitch back and some girls drop me off at a free version of Agua Puritama known to locals complete with pampas grass, dragon flies plus the warm clean stream water.
Spend an hour in the stream & sunbathing on the rocks.
Very relaxing.
Runs through the valley.
Not far from the fun Geysers you will find the warm baths, slightly muddy, slightly smelly lots of Germans, don’t let this worry you.
Strip off make sure everyone is looking, slip yer togs on and wade in.
Spent at least twenty minutes in this fashion, relaxing with the multinational crowd which had gathered in fashion to take the waters.
English
Saw the English girls from yesterday who reported that they were going to spend the afternoon horse riding then take a 25 hour bus trip to Santiago.
It was Nonnies birthday in two days and she wanted to spend it in Santiago.
Waters
Very relaxing after a 4am start.
High point in fact.
4am start for this one.
Took it with a different company, the other one was fully booked.
“The road is longgggg, with many a winding turn…”
Bumpy and long.
The woman next to me is sick and has to rush to the door which I hold open whilst she is sick and sits back down next to me.
This has the effect of encouraging my own sick thoughts which are suppressed.
Fall asleep.
Opportunity
Bumpieness has gone and we are almost there.
This tour stops for photo opportunities and I have to open and close the door for people who don’t have the strength to work the handle.
Which is most of them.
I let them peer in the window a few seconds before I let them in..
We’re here.
Geysers el Tatio
Industrial Geyser
Steam off the Geyser
An exciting place to be at 4 o’clock in the morning.