There are several guided day trips to the El Tatio geisers in the Chilean Atacama desert. They start as early as 3 am from San Juan de Atacama on a rock-n-roll ascent for more than three bus hours. This is the highest geiser field in the world, at 14,000 feet.

The geisers are only appreciated as dawn breaks, in a unique mix of atmospheric and earth temperature, and light. They're not visible in the cold night. The rising sun's heat and light soon reduce the discharge to nothing until the next morning.

The colors come mainly from minerals that are literally boiled out of the earth by the scalding water. As you can see on the left, there are also pockets of fierce color that attract the vision. The sparseness of the countryside and the altitude's solar effect dramatize the minimal colors and activity. The geisers don't discharge a large amount of water. These 4-meter spouts are the tallest in the field.
The dull hole on the right was shot shortly after 8 am. At dawn every morning, it is a healthy, growing geiser.
On the right is an older geiser, with which I immediately felt kinship. It's not the most colorful, nor the biggest, but it chugs along as neatly and whole-heartedly as it can.
The traditional breakfast here features poultry eggs that are hard-boiled in situ, directly in a baby geiser like the one-egg cooker on the left. The fiercely boiling water's heat is more than offset by the altitude's effect, so the eggs require half an hour or more to boil for eating.  
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