Arriving in San Pedro was a breath of fresh, hot air. At 2,460m above sea level my first act of applying sunscreen was pure comedy gold as the change in air pressure left me covered in the stuff. We found the way to our very relaxed hostel, five minutes out of town. It was so relaxed, the door was open and no-one was around to check us in at 8:30am so we dropped our packs and settled into hammocks in the courtyard for a few hours sleep. At about 11am Kizzy got up for a look around and found someone happy to take our money and give us a key.
In San Pedro our first goal was to book passage on a 4x4 to take us over the border to Uyuni in Bolivia. The challenge here is that there are almost no positive reviews online. Instead, the forums are littered with complaints. My favourite was the anecdote with the drunk driver who kept falling asleep and was eventually replaced at the wheel by one of the passengers. On the basis of an overheard conversation at our hostel and only minor complaints online we promptly booked with Estella del Sur. More on that journey in the next post.
San Pedro is very much a tourist town and with a full day to fill we set about booking local excursions to the Geysers de El Tatio and the Valle de la Luna. Our work done, we treated ourselves to a siesta and a good meal at a local restaurant.
At 4am the next morning we were outside our hostel waiting for collection to see the geysers at sunrise. At 6:30am we were shivering in a dark volcanic field, surrounded by puffing fumaroles. At 4,300m the El Tatio geysers are the world’s highest geothermal field and probably also the world’s coldest. I started feeling tingly as soon as we got there and by the time we had breakfast I felt positively nauseated with a banging headache and had to retreat to the minibus to lie down. I’d never experienced altitude sickness before – there’s not really any place in Australia that’s high enough.
Thankfully Kizzy was largely unaffected and took some lovely photos of the sunrise and soon after I roused myself for a dip in the nearby hot springs. Given the freezing cold outside I think everyone was hoping for a pleasant warm bathing experience. In fact we were treated to a fairly shallow thermal spring, with waters that alternated between shiveringly tepid and scalding hot. The reason you go to the geysers at sunrise is because it’s cold enough for the emissions to project visible steam into the atmosphere. This does not necessarily correspond with genuine warmth – as Kizzy pointed out, her breath was steaming up and she was freezing.
The noted restorative effects of thermal springs did not help me with my altitude sickness in this instance, although I was able to appreciate the humour of three dozen uncomfortable tourists trying to pull dry clothes over wet, shivering bodies. On the way down the hill I dry heaved a few times and had the sympathy of the other passengers as I slumped over looking green, clutching my Tupperware bowl just in case. We stopped at a local pueblo and I was supplied with a stash of unidentified herbs that I was assured would help me recover and prepare for the ascent to Bolivia the next day. 
If we hadn’t booked a tour for the afternoon I would have hidden in bed until the following morning but as it was we head out again at 3:30pm to see the wonders of the Valle de la Luna. By this time I was feeling a lot better and able to truly appreciate the moonscape vistas laid out before us. Returning shortly after sunrise I was early to bed and somewhat dreading the next day.
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