Atacama – El Tatio Geysers, Machuca and the Moon Valley
From “To Chile and Back—A Journey to Indescribable Natural Beauty”
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Our stay in San Pedro consisted of exactly one afternoon and one full day. Therefore, we did not have time to waste and decided to use the services of one of the local travel agencies to be able to see the most famous sights in the shortest possible time. In this travelogue, you will read how we managed to optimize our time there as much as possible.
Therefore, we booked a morning tour to the El Tazio Geysers as the price is 25 000 CLP per person and an afternoon tour to the Valley of the Moon as the price is 17 000 CLP per person. These prices do not include the entrance fees for the parks themselves, which in this case are 3 000 CLP for the Moon Valley and 10 000 for the Geysers. Due to the high altitude, the tour to the El Tazio Geysers is not allowed for pregnant women and children under 10 years of age. It is recommended that each participant bring warm clothes, bathing suit, water, sunglasses, comfortable shoes and handcuffs.
The travel agency that made the tours was called Layana, and we highly recommend it, as it offered the best prices in the city for most of the sights, but keep in mind that it is possible to get around by buses, not with mini vans. I mention it as it matters. The address of the agency is Tocopilla 429-B, in the center of San Pedro, and the opening hours from 10:00 to 21:00. We made the reservation online through the site www.denomades.com with payment of part of the amount in advance, and the rest had to be paid the day before.
The Geysers of El Tatio (4360 m)
The next day started early. At 4:30 a.m. the bus came to pick us up from the hotel and followed a near-hour tour around San Pedro to fill the bus with more tourists. So we realized that there were many large and luxurious villas in the outskirts of the city.
The distance between San Pedro and the El Tatio geysers is about 100 kilometers and it takes an hour and a half to two. The idea of early visiting the geysers is to go exactly at sunrise, when the cold earth meets the first rays of the Sun and then the effect of the geysers is most impressive and the steam is in the greatest amount. It should be borne in mind that the average minimum temperature of the El Tatio geysers is – 6 degrees in summer and – 20 degrees in winter. Therefore it is necessary to wear warm clothes, a hat and gloves.
Geysers are definitely very interesting and very impressive! The steam rises to a great height, and they’re located in the world’s highest-altitude geothermal field—a full 4,360 meters—and it’s one of the largest geothermal fields in the world after Yellowstone and Iceland. In many places, in addition to the rising steam, we also saw bubbling water. The whole time, the guide switched back and forth between Spanish and English as he told us all sorts of interesting facts about the place. For example, he explained that microorganisms have lived in these areas since the creation of the world and that evolution actually began with them (a fundamental fact for all who support Darwin’s theory). Scientists also speculate that these very same organisms once lived on Mars.
The guide warned us to be very careful where we walked, although the place was secure and the geysers themselves - enclosed, as quite recently there was an accident with a tourist who was fatally burned by the water and the poisonous money that came out.
A light breakfast, organized by the tour company, followed, and then we made our way back to the largest geyser. It’s actually a little off to the side from the other geysers, and right next to it is a natural pool where anyone who wants to can take a dip in the water, which is naturally heated by the surrounding volcanoes. We, of course, had forgotten our swimsuits, and the weather was quite chilly, so even if we’d had them, we probably wouldn’t have used them. This was followed by a brief “photo session” against the backdrop of the beautiful scenery around us.
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MACHUCA
On the way back we saw many lamas walking calmly through the desert. We stopped to look at Machussa, which is a very small village in the Andes, consisting of 10-15 houses, some of which are inhabited year-round. The biggest landmark of this village is the church.
It was a very beautiful building; it’s a shame it was locked and we couldn’t see the inside. And since we were at an altitude of over 4,000 meters, we gradually started to feel a bit under the weather. Personally, my head was spinning, I felt extremely tired, and I had a headache. It really took a tremendous effort for me to make it up to the church, which is located at the highest point above the village. In the center of the village (i.e., “where the tour buses stop”), they were selling grilled meat and burgers made with llama meat, BUT our guide warned us that this wasn’t actually real llama meat and was just a marketing gimmick.
On the way back, we passed through many more beautiful places; we saw lagoons teeming with flamingos, the Puritama hot springs, cacti in their natural habitat—and Nature in general was exceptionally beautiful. Indescribable landscapes everywhere. The truth is, the photos on postcards can’t do it justice—the reality is much, much more impressive. And with that, our morning tour came to an end. We were taken back to the hotel and had a few hours to rest before it was time for the next tour.
Moon Valley (Moon Valley)
It was 3:50 p.m. The location: in front of the agency’s office. From there, we set off for Moon Valley. Despite my skepticism about this tour—which boiled down to, “What could we possibly see on a tour offered at such a low price and so close to the city?”—the truth is that we saw everything there is to see in a desert and had an absolute blast.
The Moon Valley is located half an hour from San Pedro. First, we stopped at the rock formations known as “The Three Apostles,” but I’m generally not impressed by rocks that someone has decided resemble something, so I didn’t take any pictures of them. As we walked through the valley, the views went from impressive to even more impressive.
Suddenly, a huge sand dune loomed before us, and to my great delight, the tour included a climb to its summit. I thought to myself, “Wow, what a blast!”, but if you’d seen how out of breath I was after just 10 minutes, you would have laughed at me. It turned out that walking uphill on sand is one of the hardest things a person can voluntarily put themselves through just to fulfill a childhood dream.
On top of everything, the weather was very hot, and from time to time a terribly strong wind blew, carrying with it sand sand that stuck in our skin, hair and face. The view from the top of the dune was mind-blowing – so much sand, sculpted in beautiful shape with a perfect top. It was a unique experience.
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After that, we went to one of the Chulacao Caves. The guide admitted that he doesn’t take all tourists to this cave, as he takes the participants’ ages and abilities into account. But since the participants in our group were relatively young, he decided to “put us through our paces” with this cave.
The cave itself didn't have any stalagmites and stalactites, but it was still very interesting as we had to slip through some super narrow slits, we had to squat, bend down, duck 🙂 After the successful Not leaving the cave The guide made us quiet and listen and heard the rocks crack every few minutes!
To wrap things up, we went to the most popular spot for watching the sunset in this part of the Atacama Desert. It’s a beautiful sandy valley surrounded by steep cliffs. The sunset view is truly breathtaking, as the sunlight first turns the peaks on the horizon purple and then red. After such a challenging yet inspiring day, we headed back to “our” little restaurant to sample a bit more of the local cuisine.
As a conclusion for our ultra-short stay in San Pedro, I would say I regret not staying at least one more day there, the town is really nice and there are many more to see in the area. The place is worth at least three to four full days of stay.
Read and follow the next trip to Chile: CITY Iquique
