After waking up at 5 o’clock that morning to visit the geysers, we were pampered to a natural spa. We dipped in that hot water lagoon and then were offered that nice lunch of cheese, smoked salmon, fruit brochette, and even wine! It was a great experience!

Socaire is a small town located near the Atacama Salar. It was about an hour away from the hotel and we made a toilet stop there. When I was inside the toilet, I didn’t know how to lock the door and concierge walked in on me!

The town of Socaire is known for its agriculture terraces. We could see those terraces built one next to the other, but on slightly different levels. Some small vegetable plants were already growing since we were in early spring. We could also see some grass that was burnt.

There was a very small church that didn’t clearly have a name. Inside it had a few benches only, placed on one row, where approximately twenty to twenty five people could sit. The town of Socaire being so small, its habitants didn’t need a very big church. Apparently, as Ricardo was saying, the town’s people suffered from poverty, alcoholism and subsequently also from domestic violence.

This was the first night in Chile where I got to sleep more than 6 hours. But my 9 hour sleep left me with an intense headache to which was hard to wake up. My i-phone’s alarm rang at 7:45 a.m. but I stayed in bed for at least half an hour. When I got up, I took 3 Advil and one cookie that was offered from Explora. I took a wonderful shower in the wonderful contemporary bathtub which felt very good. But I was very ready to have coffee in order to wake up and get ready.

When Anh Tuan also got up, we both went to have breakfast. The dining room was empty. Maybe we were the last ones to wake up! There weren’t as much waiters as last night. We served ourselves from the breakfast table that was beautifully prepared with delicious foods. I had cereals and yogurt. I wasn’t very hungry, but filled my stomach with three coffees and a coca tea.

We would do the Altiplano expedition that day which consisted of visiting the salt lagoons on a 4,000 meters Plato. I thought that the expedition would be a little tough because it was the first time I would go on such a high altitude. I got prepared, bringing Gravol and more Advil.

Our tour guide’s name was Ricardo. He was tall and slim with a trimmed beard but very short hair. Christian, the German man who sold binoculars, would also come with us. We left at 9:30 a.m., but I still had my headache.