San Pedro De Atacama was our gateway to crossing the border into Bolivia to visit the Salt Flats, it is a little oasis straight out of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western with its unpaved streets and single storey buildings it is one of the oldest settlements in Chile and is mobbed by travellers.

The area has a number of natural attractions but of course most of them can only be visited on expensive tours, we chose to do the El Tatio Geyser tour which meant being pick up at 4.30am, the only time I like to see this time of day is when I’m out in Las Vegas, he he. Anyway back to the tour, we arrived at the Geysers just before sunrise to see plumes of steam dancing in the cold morning air. They are 4,320 meters above sea level which makes them the world’s highest geothermal field.

Was the tour worth the money and the early start? Well not really, they were not as spectacular as I thought they would be, the boiling water only just bubbles to the surface and doesn’t shoot up into the air as you would expect.