Over the past couple of days we had been indecisive about our route after Tocopilla, would we or would we not head inland towards El Tatio Geysers. Well today we decided - El Tatio here we come. The downside of this decision, which we would later suffer with, was altitude. In one day this route would take us from sea level to 14,500 ft. As it turned out this was too much - but that's getting a bit ahead of the story.

The drive inland continued with desert scenery, just unbelievably dry, and the road was deceptive in gaining altitude. Before we knew it we were at 10,000 ft. It took most of the day, interspersed with lunch and siesta breaks to reach the entrance to the geysers. The last 10 kms was undoubtedly the worst road we have so far encountered on the trip - deep and unavoidable washboards that made us wonder how the Tiger managed to hold together.

The geyser field was not very impressive in the afternoon, a few wisps of steam, some white and yellow coloring on the ground, not much else. It was a little more impressive up close when we drove into and around the various geysers and hot pools. In typical South American fashion there were no access restrictions. A road of sorts wandered all around the thermal area, we could walk whereever we wanted (subject to warnings about not falling into hot water - literally), and at one place there was a pool for swimming that had currents of very hot water running randomly through it.

With the setting of the sun the air became quite cold so we both headed for bed definitely feeling the effects of the altitude.