facts, and spend all your time looking at astounding scenery, that its difficult to take it all in, never mind remember it. We were heading towards the Chilean border and in fact got to within 50km of San Pedro de Atacama at one point. It was very weird and wonderful as the volcanic landscape we’d seen from there was instantly recognisable, but as a mirror image. We were right behind Volcan Licancabur, the perfect cone which towers over San Pedro.

We stopped at Laguna Verde, one of the many crazy coloured lakes in this region, caused by the various minerals which are produced in the volcanic activity, and then drove back the way we’d come to the hot springs. The rest of the day was a very long drive to Sol de Manana, a lake which features heavily on the promotional material for these tours, as it has an incredible red ochre colour. Unfortunately though, on the day that we got there it had

been very windy for a while, and apparently this causes the colour to fade, DOH! We would pass this way in the morning so would stop and hope the earthy redness had returned to this surreal laguna.

Just before arriving though, when everyone had pretty much had enough of travelling, the mood was lifted by our arrival at a particularly active geothermal area, with shooting geysers, hissing steam vents, and bubbling mud pools. It reminded us very much of Rotarua in the North Island of New Zealand, but it was far more powerful. The noise from these things was just incredible - it sounded like Concorde taking off!! It certainly was more wild and rugged than the paved areas you pass in Rotarua and left you with a feeling that you shouldn’t really mess with mother earth, because her wroth is strong!!