El Tatio Geysers Sunrise Tour with Breakfast San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama and the pre-dawn departure

San Pedro de Atacama is a small oasis town of adobe houses at about 2,400 metres on the edge of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, and the base for every El Tatio geysers tour. Our vehicle collects you at your hotel inside the town pickup area up to an hour before the 05:00 departure, when the streets are dark and the sky is still full of stars, which the Atacama is famous for.

The early start is not optional: the geysers are most active and most visible in the cold just before and after sunrise, when the steam condenses into tall white columns, so every visit is timed to arrive at the field before first light. Dress as if for winter even in summer, because the temperature at the geysers at dawn is often well below freezing, and the vehicle's heating is the only warm place for the next few hours.

The road up through the Andean highlands

From San Pedro the road climbs for about 90 kilometres and roughly an hour and a half to two hours, gaining almost 2,000 metres of altitude through the foothills of the Andes. In the dark you see little, but the guide explains the route and the altitude, and as the sky pales the cone of the Licancabur volcano and the other peaks of the Chilean and Bolivian border appear in silhouette to the east.

The altitude is the main consideration on this tour. Most visitors feel only mild breathlessness, but the guide advises everyone to move slowly at the field, to drink water and to avoid heavy meals the night before. Because the field lies above 4,300 metres, children under 9 are not admitted, and anyone with heart or respiratory conditions should check with a doctor before booking. Our vehicle carries a first aid kit.

El Tatio geothermal field at sunrise

El Tatio is a geyser field of around 80 active geysers spread across a high basin ringed by volcanoes, making it one of the largest geothermal fields in the world and the largest in the southern hemisphere. Groundwater heated by magma below the Andes forces its way up through the volcanic rock and erupts as geysers, boiling pools, mud pots and fumaroles. Most of the geysers here are low, a metre or two high, but their steam columns rise far above them in the still, freezing dawn.

As the sun comes over the ridge, the light turns the steam gold and pink and the whole basin seems to smoke, which is the moment everyone has come for. Our guide leads a walk of about an hour along the marked paths between the geysers, explaining the mineral terraces, the colours of the thermophile algae and the safety rules, since the ground is thin and the water scalding. Anyone wondering whether El Tatio is worth the early start finds the answer here.

Breakfast beside the geysers

After the walk, breakfast is served beside the geysers, with hot drinks and a simple spread prepared by the guide and driver at the vehicle while the steam drifts past. It is a simple meal but a memorable one, taken at 4,320 metres with the sun now warming the air and the geysers still puffing in the background, and it gives the body a welcome warm-up before the descent.

This is also the quiet time to photograph the field in full light, when the steam thins and the mineral colours of the pools show, and to spot the Andean birds that come down to the warm water. The guide answers questions about the geology and the surrounding peaks of the Tatio and Putana volcanoes. The entrance fee to the geothermal field is paid in advance at our local office and is not included in the tour price shown.

Altiplano wetlands and wildlife on the return

The return to San Pedro de Atacama follows the same road in daylight, and now the altiplano reveals what the dark hid on the way up: broad high plateaus of yellow grass, snow-streaked volcanoes and wetlands fed by streams from the geyser field. The vehicle stops at the viewpoints and at the Putana river wetlands, where Andean flamingos feed in the shallows and giant coots build their nests of water plants.

Herds of wild vicuñas, the smallest relatives of the llama, graze on the slopes, and viscachas, long-tailed rodents like rabbits, sun themselves on the rocks near the road. The descent takes about an hour and a half with stops, and the tour ends with drop-off in San Pedro de Atacama around midday, which leaves the afternoon free for the Valley of the Moon or a rest. Altogether the tour lasts about 6 hours.