San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is known for being the obligatory first step on the way to the famous Atacama Desert, one of the largest and most arid in the world. Originally, visitors to this city were mainly backpackers, but over time the riches of the place caught the attention of tourism on a larger scale. Since then, San Pedro de Atacama continues to surprise and be surprised by thousands of tourists who visit it year after year. It is located 1700 km from Santiago de Chile and just 160 km from the Jama International Pass, where we cross the border into Argentine territory. Visiting the pre-Incan ruins that are still preserved by the Pukaras of Quitor and Catarpe, we understand why the desert gate is also called the archaeological capital of the country. Between deserts and ruins, we will continue our journey through the cloud vapors of the Tatio Geysers (“Tata-iú” which in kunza, the original dialect of the Atacameños, means “the grandfather who cries”), the third largest group of geysers in the world and the biggest in the southern cone. We will arrive at the Valley of the Moon – classified as a “natural sanctuary” – and the Death Valley, products of an ocean that evaporated over thousands of years and the caprices of wind and river erosion, goldsmiths of the geographic formations that allow us to inhabit the moon for a while, and creators of the dunes that make sandboard lovers delirious. Returning home at the end of the day, the city of San Pedro de Atacama await us with its adobe houses, and we can walk the main street, “Caracoles”, or take a walk around the Village of Craftsmen to see the art produced by a people liberated from the shackles of time.

Through deserts and valleys, we traverse history until we reach the moon.