Salta and Atacama

My vacation is drawing to a close - 10 days to go. Right now, I´m in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, which is homebase for 3 days as I explore the various desert/mountain sites located nearby.

Before Atacama, I spent 3 days in Salta, which is in the north of Argentina. Salta was a beautiful city with lots to do - a group of us (2 guys from Ireland, Michael and Tom) rented a car one day and drove through a beautiful mountain pass. The next day, we went on an amazing 7 hour horseback ride through the mountains. Unlike my previous experience with horseback riding, this time the horse actually liked me and was willing to work! All in all, a great few days.

This morning we left at 4:30am to view the geysers at dawn. These geysers are the third largest set in the world and emit water that is 85 degrees celcius (which is the boiling point of water at 4,200 meters altitude). Apparently four tourists have been killed over the years by getting disoriented by the steam and falling into the geysers, but I stayed a good distance away. One of the cool things was watching how our guide cooked breakfast for us - he boiled our eggs by placing them in a plastic bag and laying the bag in one of the smaller geysers. Good use of geothermal energy!

Tomorrow I´m off on my 3-day trek through the Bolivian Salt Flats in a 4x4 truck. My biggest challenge seems to be booking my return transportation from Bolivia. My trip ends in the city of Uyuni, from where I have about 36 hours to make the 11hr trip back to Salta to catch my plane home to Buenos Aires.

Shouldn´t be a problem normally, but, Bolivia has very little infrastructure and its impossible to know whether buses will be full or not. I´ll hope for the best!