Itinerary · 8 days · 34 places
8 Days in the Atacama
Eight days based in San Pedro de Atacama: the Valley of the Moon and the Cordillera de la Sal, the steaming geysers of El Tatio, flamingos on the salt flat and Altiplano lagoons above 4,000 metres — and in the evenings the clearest night sky on Earth.
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Photo: Eleanore Stohner · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival in San Pedro de Atacama
Arrival in San Pedro de Atacama
Hotel check-in
You stay in the adobe heart of San Pedro, where none of the lanes are paved and the church square is five minutes from your door.
Plaza de Armas de San Pedro de Atacama
Shaded by pepper trees and with a wooden bandstand, the village square is where the Atacameños meet in the evening and the best place to get used to the thin air.
Day 2Adobe village, Pukará and the gorge
Iglesia San Pedro de Atacama
The whitewashed church of 1744 has a roof of cactus wood and clay, lashed together without a single nail.
Museo del Meteorito
In a darkened yurt-style tent lie around 3,000 meteorites found in the desert, several of which you are allowed to touch.
Aldea de Tulor
The 2,800-year-old settlement of round clay houses now only half emerges from the sand that preserved it for centuries.
Pukará de Quitor
The 12th-century Atacameño fortress, terraced up a steep slope, overlooks the green ribbon of the Río San Pedro.
Garganta del Diablo
A narrow canyon in the Valle de Catarpe that you walk through between red-layered walls, in places only two metres apart.
Evening: Calle Tocopilla
The quieter street parallel to Caracoles, with courtyard bars and fire bowls burning algarrobo wood in the evening.
Day 3Valley of the Moon and Cordillera de la Sal
Valle de la Muerte
A sand ramp between red rock walls, which you sandboard down in the morning before the heat sets in.
Mirador de Kari
The rocky lookout on the ridge of the Cordillera de la Sal, from which you overlook the entire Salar de Atacama and the chain of volcanoes beyond.
Anfiteatro in the Valle de la Luna
A semicircular basin of folded salt rock, where you hear the crust crackle as soon as the sun hits it.
Las Tres Marías
Three wind-sculpted figures of salt and clay in the middle of the plain, which look different from every angle.
Duna Mayor
The great crescent dune above the Valley of the Moon, from whose crest you watch Licancabur turn from ochre to violet within minutes at sunset.
Evening: stargazing over the Ayllu de Solor
On the southern edge of the village the street lighting stops, and above the alfalfa fields the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds feel close enough to touch.
Day 4The geysers of El Tatio
El Tatio geyser field
At 4,320 metres, columns of steam shoot up to ten metres high from more than eighty vents, only vanishing in the warmth around midday.
El Tatio thermal pool
A walled natural pool on the edge of the geyser field filled with 35-degree spring water, while the air beside it is still at freezing point.
Vega del Tatio
The wet high-altitude bog below the geysers, where vicuñas graze and viscachas sit among the boulders.
Evening: Calle Toconao
The lane of open craft stalls where llama wool, copper and chañar syrup are sold in the evening.
Day 5Toconao and the flamingos of the salt flat
Campanario de Toconao
The free-standing bell tower of 1750 is built of white liparite, the volcanic stone from which the whole village is made.
Quebrada de Jerez
A green gorge with pomegranate, fig and quince trees, through which a stream flows straight down from the Andes.
Laguna Chaxa
On the salt crust of the Salar de Atacama, James's, Andean and Chilean flamingos stand in shallow brine lagoons in front of the Licancabur volcano.
Laguna Barros Negros
The second lagoon on the Chaxa loop lies stiller and in the afternoon reflects the entire volcanic chain like a sheet of metal.
Evening: Calle Gustavo Le Paige
The lane behind the church square named after the archaeologist priest, where the courtyards light fires in the evening and sopaipillas are sold.
Day 6Salt lagoons on the northern edge of the salar
Ojos del Salar
Two perfectly round, deep-blue sinkholes in the middle of the salt steppe, which you can jump into from the edge.
Laguna Cejar
With a salt content of over 30 per cent, the brine lagoon keeps you afloat like the Dead Sea and is ringed by a wreath of salt crystals.
Laguna Piedra
The only lagoon in the Cejar system where swimming is allowed; afterwards you rinse off the salt at the showers on the shore.
Laguna Tebinquiche
A wafer-thin film of water over the salt crust that reflects the volcanoes like a perfect mirror in the late afternoon.
Evening: Calle Domingo Atienza
A short lane with wine bars and roof terraces from which you watch the moon rise over the Cordillera de la Sal.
Day 7Altiplano lagoons and Piedras Rojas
Laguna Miscanti
A deep-blue high-altitude lake at 4,100 metres at the foot of Cerro Miscanti, where Andean geese and horned coots swim.
Laguna Miñiques
The smaller sister lagoon behind the lava barrier, where vicuñas are often seen coming down to the shore to drink.
Piedras Rojas
Rust-red, iron-rich lava boulders on the white shore of the Salar de Aguas Calientes — the most colourful spot on the whole high plateau.
Salar de Talar
A vast salt pan at 3,950 metres whose turquoise remnant lakes are framed by a ring of volcanoes.
Evening: Calle Licancabur
The side street with small pisco bars where in the evening almost only locals and guides sit.
Day 8Last morning in San Pedro
Paseo Artesanal de San Pedro
The covered craft market next to the church square sells llama wool, copper jewellery and dried chañar fruit straight from the families of the ayllus.
Casa Incaica
The village's oldest surviving adobe house, from the 16th century, stands on the corner of Caracoles and shows the original building method with cactus-wood beams.
Departure from Calama
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