Upping the pace - written 13 Aug 2009

Upping the pace (written Day 5, pre-departure for Bolivia)
I’m catching up after the events of the last two days which have moved at a rapid pace in all directions - particularly height above sea level. It’s not something to be dwelt on in the usual course of daily events but the compass feature on the super watch has been overridden by the altitude button - so you’ll also have to get used to it. To get you acclimatised, I’m tapping away in our room on the final morning (of two) at the little town of San Pedro de Altacama which is at 2 300 metres - where it’s boiling hot by day and v. cold at night - although it will be much colder in Bolivia. This brings ‘stuff’ back into the foreground, as the whole group of us (18) spend a lot of the time putting ‘stuff’ on and taking it off, all day long - and night as far as I’m concerned. Last night’s bed coverings were particularly frail!
To give you an idea, we set off at 5.00am yesterday morning for a bone shaking two hour drive to El Tatio Geysers where it was minus 14 Celsius (can’t find the degree key - don’t think there is one). It was an ‘awesome’ place, which again challenged my perceptions of scenery and geography. To be in a desert which hasn’t seen rain for forty years in some areas and then to be transported to a moonlike setting wit) steam rising and endless bubbling cauldrons was challenging. The biggest challenge was whether I could actually move whilst wearing so many layers (approx 9) of clothing and the second was identifying with the sci-fi scene after spending two hours bumping along in the bus, arriving at 4 300 metres. Obviously I did, although we have been receiving so much ‘what can happen to your body at altitude’ snippets of information, that I was quite surprised to be upright and functioning.
Another challenge which contributed to the pot of challenges was the effects of two early morning starts, with the previous day getting up to fly to Calamara City at 2 000 metres, for the start of the Andean adventure. When the alarm went off at 3.15am, my intrepid travelling companion (he’s getting used to this label) was already up and in the shower - obviously well trained by his hardy American colleagues I say!
Although thankfully we didn’t stop off at Calamara City (don’t like cities), you might be interested to know that apart from its metreage above sea level, it only exists (in a moonscape) for copper and has the world’s largest copper mine - producing a 6th of the world’s copper. More fascinating (for me) - never been terribly interested in pipes - it’s the driest place on earth. In some places rain has never been recorded - beat that!
Just in case you think we’ve been sitting around gazing at geysers - we most definitely haven’t. After the initial awesomeness of yesterday mornings cauldrons, we spent a further 7 hours (more numbers) travelling around looking at more awesome spectacles, stopping off at a little village for coca tea. There was another major excursion which brought forth Andean Flamingo, Chilean Flamingo, Puna Plover and Andean Avocet. Only the brave and hardy went on this (my super hero room mate) as by this time I was wiped out, as were most of the rest of the group - who I’m not going to tell you about yet, as there’s no time.
Birding and mousing
The Bill Bryson noticing’ registers ‘very hot’ on the birds and moving creatures scale. Yesterday, the star award has to go to the Olive Grass Mouse and to its photographer - we’ll be able to show you just how cute it is.