El Tatio – Third Largest Geyser Field in World

Head into the Andes Mountains of northern Chile and you’ll find “El Tatio” a geyser field at 4,320 meters above mean sea level. El Tatio is among the highest-elevation geyser fields in the world and has more than 80 active geysers, making it the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere and the third largest in the world.

El Tatio, whose name comes from the Quechua word for oven, The geysers erupt to an average height of about 75 centimeters, with the highest eruption observed being around 6 meters. This place is a major tourist attraction, usually arriving by sunrise. This is the time when each geyser is surmounted by a column of steam that condenses in the cold air.

The steam plumes disappear as the air warms up, and it is possible to bathe in the hot geyser water in a small pool. Though the nearby population center for the El Tatio Geysers is Calama, a beautiful ancient town with a small but developing tourist sector, the vast majority of visitors come on day trips from San Pedro de Atacama.

Moreover, there’s wreckage at the site from an old project for harnessing geothermal power. The exploration of El Tatio is controversial because this site is a popular tourist attraction, receives more than 100,000 visitors per year, and is the principal attraction of nearby San Pedro de Atacama; the geysers are in an indigenous zone, which people put a value on and show to the world.

If you want to see this place, then the best time to see the geysers is 06:00, so make sure you wipe the sleep from your eyes if you want to experience the breathtaking display. So be careful and watch your step, because, in some places, tourists have fallen through the thin crust into underlying pools of boiling water and suffered severe burns.

Dress in layers; it’s toe-numbingly cold at sunbreak, but you will bake in the van on the way back down. The area is also home to a number of hot springs. You’ll find pools with waters at comfortable temperatures, or if you’re willing to brave undressing in the cold, high-altitude air. The ground takes a while to reach 16 oC after the chill of the night has passed, but the experience is worth the wait.