Day three starts in the dark of night. Time to see the geysers (pronounced gazers) north of here. Our superman driver, Carlos, is with us again. Oskar is our guide. We all sleep for about 10 minutes until we hit the mud road. Ola! An adventure. The sun starts to rise over the Andes. We spot a newborn vicunya off in the brush with the mother. Then we spot what I think are chincillas (can{t remember the local name). Pictures are all shot .. not enough light. Not to fear .. we make it to the geysers. A remarkable site! Hundreds of steam clouds and bubbling cauldrons of water spouting from the earth. What a site! right up there with the many tourists who are stripping down to bathing suits (those that went further will be in the pay'per'view section of the kodak gallery) and enjoyed the thermal spring. We had a beautiful breakfast near the geysers, then headed to the other hot springs. Along the way, we got more wonderful pictures of the chinchilla, the rhea (local ostrich), a few llama and more vicunya. Several birds were at the hot springs. We headed back to Awasi for a delicious steak lunch. I finally found the bar menu. Much to my delight, they make the wicked Brazilian cocktails. My head is still swimming. We leave in half an hour for Santiago.

All in all, a wonderful day. Now .. back to Santiago.

Cheers, Anne

Cheers, Anne