Day 26 – Saturday, February 21, 2026

As this is a biking blog (more or less), except for 5 km there was no biking this day - so feel free to skip. My plan was to reach the Tatio geyser, at 4,200 meters, some 80 km north of San Pedro, a few kilometers from the Bolivian border. My plan was to leave at 4:30 am, as sunrise is the best time to be there. Well, it seems I am getting a bit exhausted, despite setting my alarm, I only woke up at 5:30 am, greeted my Dad for his birthday, so departure was only at 6:00. It was still dark, but thought the 80 km can be done in an hour. I could not have been more wrong. Thee good Chilean roads I had experienced so far led me to believe this would be a smooth ride. It was anything but. The road was unpaved and at many places I had to navigate through smaller landslides due to the storm. At higher altitude, the road was as bumpy as it can possibly get. I watched other drivers (there were a few), they left the road and continued on the void of the Atacama smart. I never had a chance of reaching there by sunrise, there was an hour ahead of me when it got light. Still, I was deeply impressed by the scenery - snow-clad peaks all around me in a pretty outwardly setting. I was amazed to see sudden patches of green in this otherwise completely arid settinga - and rte green meant water - yes, at around 4,000 meters, there were all kinds of wading birds - including flamingos. Alone the drive to the geysers was a thrill, with something new every corner. Ifinally I met with vicunas - ones I was hoping to see in the national parks. Therevwerwentire herds of them. The geysers were interesting, I believe this is the highest point on earth for this phenomenon, but it was a bit Disneyland-like. One of the largest ones is called Killer-geyser - as doing selfies turned deadly for quite a few tourists. I was amazed how pure the water was - alas, no swimming there, they stopped this activity sone 5 years ago. I was back in San Pedro around noon and made a feeble attempt to drive to Salar de Atacama- a salt flat with more flamingos. After driving dome 40 km, sone friendly policemen informed ne the road was closed due to flooding. This in the driest place on earth.

Since the road to in on de Atacama was closed, the friendly policemen recommended I ho up to other flamingo reserves. There had been a road I was eying with. It looks like someone took a pool table and simply tilted it upwards. It was not rhe curvy drive of te Alps; but a more or less straight road - with a steady incline. I checked my fuel - it was showing some 320 km, while I gad just a drive of 100 km each way. I failed to are into consideration that consumption would rise dramatically on such an incline. I started playing mind games, what if the fuel runs out, the wheels get a puncture (the car indicated three of the four tires having a gaugue issue, a storm like the previous one hits, some Bolivian kidnapper tries to sell me, etc. It was a wonderful ride, the highest point of which was over 4,800 meters. I got back to San Pedro without any incident, some 50 km reserve still intact. There I treated myself to an excellent, tender chicken It was time to drive back to Calama - no thunder, light traffic. A few km away from the very spot I had hitchhiked from two says prior was a broken-down van, with someone hitchhiking. I stopped and drove him to town Thhat evening I booked the best hotel so far in Chile - for €50. The price was on par with sone dreadful institutions. I checked in, dropped my stuff in my room, then drove to the airport to return the car. As mentioned, the inly riding nhat day was from the airport the hotel.