day four at Explora Atacama: geysers, flamingos, and french fries

After a very early 6 am breakfast, during which I discovered that custard apple juice is absolutely delicious and something I wished I had regular access to, we headed to the geysers, which was about a 45 minute drive away from the hotel.

Although I was drifting between sleeping and staying awake, I was able to enjoy some of the stunning views on the drive there,. The view was made even more stunning by the fact that the sun slowly rose as we drove towards the geysers.

Soon enough, we made it to Geysers del Tatio. There were a surprisingly large amount of people there, despite it being very early in the morning and many countries having already begun shuttering their borders due to COVID-19. While it was beautiful, it was very cold, since it was so early in the morning.

Afterwards, we headed to this nearby secluded spot right next to a swamp, where we enjoyed our second breakfast of the day. I enjoyed a pretty tasty ham and cheese croissant and I tried coca tea, which apparently helps with the high altitude, for the first time. There really is nothing better than great views and food, especially when you can enjoy them at the same time.

After our second breakfast, we drove back to the hotel, but not before stopping for some more photo opportunities along the way.

If you look really closely, you can see a tiny bird and its nest.

A closer view of said bird, which I’m 95% sure is a duck. (Please correct me if I’m wrong)

Another view of those beautiful mountains.

Some gaunacos, aka the ancestor’s of llamas.

Some llamas that passed by us, causing a slight traffic jam.

The much anticipated flamingos we’d been hearing about since we got to Explora.

After a much needed rest back in the hotel room, it was time for lunch. To start, I had chilled cucumber gazpacho, which turned out to be surprisingly tomato-y, savory, and refreshing. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

For my main course, I had fried rice, which for some reason, I did not think would be their actual attempt at making Chinese style fried rice. Needless to say, maybe don’t order fried rice at a hotel in remote Chile.

Luckily, the dessert I chose, which was custard apple sorbet, were absolutely delicious. So creamy and sweet, with a slight bitter aftertaste.

Afterwards, I relaxed on the deck for a bit. I also enjoyed both the potato chips I so loved and french fries due to a happy miscommunication. I asked for potato chips, but I think the waiter misheard me and brought me french fries. Luckily, I also passed by another waiter, who recognized me and knew of the potato chips I wanted. Long story short, I ended up with both potato chips and french fries, so it was a very carb-happy day. The french fries were pretty good too.

For our final excursion ever, we visited the Devil’s throat. Because the hotel was closing on the 22nd, the hotel was quickly emptying, so we were the only one on our excursion. Additionally, until we literally got to the park and they allowed us in, we weren’t sure if we would be able to go, since all the attractions in the area were shutting down that day. And since all the attractions(including Devil’s Throat) are technically part of one park, theoretically, if one shut down, all the other ones would too. But luckily, we were allowed in, and since the park was supposed to close about a half an hour after we were let in, it’s highly possible we were the last people allowed in/left in the park.

Since the rainy season ended mere weeks ago, they had only just finished paved the roads allowing us to drive in yesterday. Even now, we had to drive over some pretty rough streams of water. There’s also a hotel inside of the park that floods every rainy season that I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of. Also, people live in the park, and during the rainy season, are literally cut off from the rest of the world, which is just absolutely crazy to imagine to me.

After our visit to the Devil’s throat, we then headed back to the hotel, only to decide to go into town again, because our guide had told us that apparently, everything in town was shutting down tomorrow. So the hotel provided a (very nice) car for us that take us into town, although not before I took some final sunset pictures.

It was then finally time for a last dinner in Chile. To start, I had the carrot soup. It unsurprisngly tasted pretty much solely of carrots, and kind of tasted like a creamier version of carrot juice.

As a main course, I had grilled chicken breast with quinoa. It was simple, but also the chicken breast was very well cooked.

As a dessert, I had crepes with dulce de leche and vanilla ice cream. This was really good, and quite possibly one of my favorite desserts I’d had here. I mean, there’s no way this dessert was going to be bad, after all.

After that, we printed out our boarding passes in the lobby, before taking in the beautiful(not pictured) night sky and stars one last time, before heading to bed, in preparation for our long day of travel the next day.