A travel vlog by Nate Buchanan documenting a dawn trip to the El Tatio geysers in the Atacama Desert. The video covers a guided explanation of the geysers (how they form, local boiling point at altitude), on-foot exploration of geyser pools and hot springs, brief wildlife/wetland stops, and a visit to a tiny nearby town where the hosts sample local foods (llama meat, empanada de cabra). Practical travel tips (arrive at sunrise for stronger steam, dress warmly) and local facts are presented throughout.
Questions this video answers
February 4, 2017.
The guide says it is the third biggest geothermal field in the world (after Yellowstone and Dolina Geyserov).
86 degrees (presumably Celsius as stated).
8% of the world's geysers.
14 families.
Chapters
It is 4:30 in the morning and we just walked across town to meet our tour group because we are driving two hours back into the desert to see some geysers.
Apparently you have to get there right at sunrise because that's when the geysers are best. Also the one perk to waking up at 4 o' clock in the morning is that the stars here are beautiful. Supposed to be one of the best places in the world to see stars.
So it is a little after 6am we just arrived at the geysers. The sun is about to come up over the mountain. It's absolutely beautiful. So yesterday we talked about how much we enjoyed having our own car and being able to explore things on our own. But this morning I'm really glad we chose to go with a tour because I don't think the car we had yesterday would have made it.
It was a long, bumpy ride and it was dark.
So guys, welcome to the Satyo Geysers. We are now here in the third biggest geothermal field in the world and after Yellowstone in the United States and also Dolina Geyserov in Russia. So the geyser works like this. We are in the Andes mountain range and underground we have a very powerful magmatic cham.
Rocks with a lot of breaks on them. So the water that goes underground gets heated by these rocks and because of pressure and temperature, the water looks for escape. And this is how they do it. And the water at this altitude boils at 86 degrees.
We just learned that this is the third largest thermal field in the world and it has 8% of the world's geysers. Pretty crazy. It doesn't smell too pleasant, but it's a little warmer if you staying close to them.
Shorts were a very poor decision.
We just learned a little bit about the geysers with a guide and now we get 30 minutes to walk around on our own and take pictures. We learned that if we come at like 3pm that the steam only comes up about a meter. And so that's why we have to get here when it's cold and early. And they were not joking when they said it would be cold.
Dress warm, don't wear shorts.
Sam.
Sat is coming out.
Feels so good. Getting feeling back in my fingers currently. And now we are getting back in the van and we're heading to another part of the geyser field.
There is a hot spring swimming pool here. I wore my bathing suit, but I'm gonna test the temperature before I jump in. Not quite positive. I'm gonna Smoke it.
That looks pretty warm.
It' doing it. It's really cold right now, though. I need to go to the source. It's colder. It's getting warmer.
The hot or cold.
It's like cold at the top and hot at the bottom. It is so hot right here.
And the ground is.
It's really soft mud.
Is it worth it?
Worth it?
I don't know if I'm as cold as I was before. I think it warmed me up a little bit. But once you get out and the wind starts to hit you. Now we have a few more minutes to go check out the other geysers before we go eat breakfast.
We finally got some warm coffee. I've been waiting on this all morning. We're having a pretty good breakfast. There's a pan of eggs and toast and jam and some Oreos. My kind of breakfast.
Much warmer now. Much more pleasant. And now we're driving back to San Pedro, but we have a few more stops along the way.
We just stopped at these wetlands to look at some Chilean birds. And the Andes mountains are right there, and there's an active volcano.
She also told us that these birds are, like, really bad at flying and look really uncoordinated. Specifically one called the coot. And so they have a saying here. When someone's really drunk, they say, you're drunk as a coot. Just thought that was pretty funny.
We just arrived in this tiny town of matuka. There's only 14 families that live here. And each year, one family is in charge of the llama meat. Apparently that is a huge business. They all have solar panels for energy, and they get their water from underground. I think there's more tourists here than there are people that live here. We saw some more wildlife on the way here. We saw some biku. Bikuya. Bikuyas. That's what we were calling llama deers all day yesterday. And we learned that they travel around in packs and they only have one male. And if another male is born, then when it becomes an adult, they fight each other to see who gets to keep all the females. They're really fascinating. And they all use the bathroom in the same spot to mark their territory.
We have to get one.
Just paid for my llama meat inside. And I got a napkin as a receipt.
Gracias.
I feel so bad eating a llama. Gonna try it first.
Yum. Mamma mia. Is amazing.
Girl feels bad anymore.
I mean, I'm keeping this family in business. It is seriously so good. You're gonna love. Has onion in it.
Too.
Another specialty we're supposed to try in this town is empanada de cabra. It is goat cheese. I already love empanadas and I love goat cheese. I never get to get it because Nate doesn't like it and we usually split stuff. So I give him the rest of the llama meat and I get this.
It's amazing. You would hate it, but I love it. Now we're going to explore the town, which is literally these buildings right here.
The Atacama Desert is just so fascinating to me. The fact that it just backs right up to the Andes Mountains. It has marshes, volcanoes, hot springs. I mean, it's just incredible that all of that can exist, exist in this one spot.
And in some places, they say it hasn't rained for 400 years.
Yeah. And in some places there's a huge storm last week where they had to cancel tours.
We have loved the Atacama Desert. It's like no other place we have ever been. I think this was the last stop on our tour. So we're about to hop back in the bus and head back to San Pedro.
That wasn't done.
I think you love goat cheese and you just don't know it.
I don't. That doesn't taste like this, do.
You?
He's not a big fan of you. He's scared him back inside. It's a few days later, and we just wanted to remind you that we're doing the 30k giveaway where you can win lounge access for a year as well as early access to my travel hacking course while I teach you how to travel around the world for pennies on the dollar.
So make sure you look in the description below. Click the link, enter to win. Tell your friends. This competition ends on Thursday, January 9th.
