Rio Blanca at 14000 feet

Today, March 9, 2022, we did the full day preparatory high altitude hike to see the El Tatio geysers and Rio Blanco. It’s the best hike we want on at Atacama.

it was a much nicer drive than the other days, up to the snow and cold. The El Tatio geyser field is the largest geyser field in the Southern Hemisphere.

The hiking team was made up of our new friends -Lisa and Rob- and Mica as guide. The weather was beautiful and sunny with some ground fog as we went up. We were up at about 14390 feet and hiked about 4.5 miles. We could really feel it.

after walking through the geyser park we took the van overland to our starting point. After the initial uphill, we went down to a warm water river valley with some geyser activity. We stopped for tea and watched some herds of vicuñas with babies. The warm river waters became cold above the white geyser.

The highlight was seeing viscachas- rabbit like creatures that are relatives of the chinchilla and usually live at between 14000-16000 feet In the Andes Mountains. There were even babies!!!

Also interesting were the “ancient green blobs“ of the Andes called Yareta, part of carrot family, which grow only at 10000-15000 feet.

Just before the hike ended we saw an old corral estimated to be about 600 years old. We had drinks and snacks at the van before starting back.

On the way back we stopped by 2 wetlands where we saw cara cara birds, the Andean coot, various ducks and 2 types of flamingos: Andean and Chilean. At the second wetland, near the sulfur mine, we saw wild donkeys and baby llamas which looked like dolls. There were sheep also grazing which looked rather out of place.

we also saw one of the volcano which had a bit of sulfurous mist coming out of the top.