We woke up at 3:30 am in order to be ready for the Geyser Tour that left at 4. Oy.
Things went well for the first hour of the ride: excellent stargazing kept me occupied. Things got dicey in the second hour when our van, in which I was seated in the back with a strong smell of exhaust, started going on roads that were unpaved and generally not very roadlike. We had also neglected to take altitude into account: we were 4km up in the mountains, not 4000m. Yikes.
Altitude sickness or car sickness or something caught hold of me. Before we even arrived, my weak stomach had had enough, warranting a pull over to the side of the road which attracted everyone's attention and led to a parade of remedies. Oxygen, two types of pills, another round of vomiting, a random healing treatment by a women who was convinced her energy would help me, coca leaves and a strange herbal tea later, I finally felt well enough to make it through the ride back.
Although I had had some reservations about them, the geysers really were phenomenal. While I was expecting 10 or so, there were at least a 100 and probably more.
I wish I could have enjoyed the experience more, but now I know to be better prepared when it comes to dealing with altitude and poor roads. The mountain views were great as well and there was lots of wildlife, such as vicuñas, adorable llama cousins.
The ride home was one of my favorite moments on the trip as well. After passing through Guatin, a valley filled with cactus, we descended with the purple of the Andes on one side and the Salar de Atacama on the other. Simply gorgeous. As we drove in through a particularly poor section of the town that I had never noticed before even though we were staying nearby, Victor Jara's "Las Casitas del Barrio Alto" (Essentially the same song as the Weeds intro for any fans) played out on the radio. It was a moment shot through with eye opening irony, the perfect way to end a self absorbed uncomfortable morning.
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