San Pedro de Atacama: 3 Tours and a Slippery Bike Ride

After having chosen to pass up a visit to the fascinating desert region around San Pedro de Atacama, Chile the first time we were in the area, years ago, we decided to remedy that oversight this time around. No, it wasn’t exactly “on the way”, as we had to first fly from Lima to Santiago, then change planes to fly to a place called Calama (a completely new word to us, as well) and, from there, take a shuttle over an hour to reach the aforementioned tourist hotspot.

We already knew a few key things about San Pedro – very dry, surrounded by wild landscapes and salt flats, close to volcanoes – but not a lot of details. Take, for example, the “driest place in the world” stuff we’d heard. A belief that took a significant hit when it rained our very first night in town.

Our site includes affiliate links to products we recommend. If you use one to make a purchase, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Yeah, turns out that epic dryness only applies to a very specific part of the desert hidden in the rain shadow of the mountains southwest of San Pedro. Hm, ok. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very dry place. As in, it only rains a couple times a year (and none, apparently, between 1570 and 1971, which seems like a fairly notable drought). So our experience was still a bit weird. Just not quite as monumental as we originally suspected.

Anyway, San Pedro de Atacama is a dusty, brown, vibrant, tourist-filled little town with a wisely pedestrian main street (Calle Caracoles) that has strategically remained unpaved to produce the very specific adobe-desert-outpost-town feel that most people are hoping to find. Said street is lined with atmospheric restaurants, jack-of-all-trades tour agencies and quite a few places selling the indispensable tourist clothing, keepsakes and trinkets the travelling public has come to rely on the world over.

Meanwhile, the morally grubbier money changers and less aesthetically appealing restaurants are relegated to the side streets, with most hotels and hostels being found within the surrounding few blocks. The actual residents of San Pedro – of whom there are far more than you originally suspect – then live in the outer layer, a much less picturesque scramble of winding streets (of a much more sensible width for driving, also).

With a wide range of natural attractions spread out around the countryside in all directions from San Pedro, varying from 30 min to 4 hrs by car, exploring the Atacama Desert is only feasibly done by either renting a car (preferably one with some clearance) or joining various tours. The tour agencies in San Pedro (of which there are literally dozens) have most of these tours down to a science, with precious little variance between companies in most cases.

Bottom line: we signed up for 3 different tours through 2 different companies and spent one day on a DIY excursion. This is how it went:

Bike to Valle de Marte/Muerte

After our travel day from Lima, we weren’t looking for anything extensive on day 1. Yet I somehow convinced Laynni she wanted to rent a bike and ride up into the Valley of Mars (Marte). It is also known as the Valley of Death (Muerte), although supposedly for no better reason than some people are bad at spelling (or pronunciation, which certainly seems plausible to a person with my Spanish – ahem – skills).

Followed an easy, flat road out to the park (approx 4 km), then hit some gravel, then some softer, sandy stuff, not entirely ideal for biking, especially for someone like Laynni who generally suspects my biking directive of “keep up your speed, the faster you go the easier it is” as me slyly trying to set up a viral video situation.

Eventually the path devolved to the point the bikes were no longer feasible and we left them locked up and continued onward and upward on foot. A nice walk through some legitimately “Martian” landscapes, passing through a short but impressive gorge, up to some great viewpoints, across and back up to some more lookouts all, eventually, capped off by some exhilarating leaps down some dramatic sand dunes back to our bikes.

The two sandboarders we had passed walking all the way out from town looked on as we bounded down the hill like frolicking children, themselves very carefully and indecisively mapping out the best route down on their boards, knowing in their heart of hearts there was no damn way they were hiking all the way back up again. One and done, for sure.

Then, on to Pukara de Quitor, a set of ruins very close to town. You get to climb a big hill for a decent view and the mildly interesting remains of some old brick/adobe structures. I wouldn’t call it a must-see, but it is certainly convenient.

Valle de Arco Iris (Rainbow Valley)

Our first organized tour went off without a hitch, other than the gale-force winds that dropped the temperature from “mostly pleasant” to “jesus H, this is crazy”. The first thing we noticed was how organized the tour company was (Horizonte Atacama, in this case), setting up a new WhatsApp group including everyone signed up and messaging the pickup “schedule” and current location along the route. Something that seemed to be standard practice among most (all?) the companies in town. Of course, if you – for example – forget to “join group” you might still end up receiving a slightly frantic phone call at 7:10 am and have to cut your last pee short to rush out to the road, but I’m sure that purely hypothetical situation is a completely understandable mistake.

The tour started out a Hierbas Buenas, an open area of rock formations carved with ancient petroglyphs up to 4,000 years old. There were cacti and other plants, lots of carved stickmen (there was clearly some variation in the rock-carving skills of the different neanderthals), plus various tableaus of different animals, not surprisingly most of which was pretty llama-heavy. It was confusing that most were a bit faded and hard to see except for that one brightly coloured version that always looked way better than the rest, something I found quite helpful. And only at the very end found out those were recently painted legends to help out folks just like me. Another very understandable mistake, right?

The most famous petroglyph of the lot was a two-headed llama (one at each end) filled with triangles – representing the surrounding mountains, the theory goes, not that it was actually a carving of a Game of Thrones dragon, like Laynni guessed. Then there was a slightly bizarre monkey, bizarre because no monkeys live anywhere nearby. Luckily, this was plausibly explained away that “maybe one of the people saw a monkey somewhere else – the Amazon probably – and decided to draw it”. Glad we got to the bottom of that.

Then we stopped for a short breakfast in a basic shelter – scrambled eggs, buns, ham, cheese, fruit, no plates, some tangy juice – and moved on to the main event, Rainbow Valley. A geologist’s dream (presumably, I try not to pry), with multi-layered rocky cliffs in all different colours, some of them contrasting quite photogenically, a feature which came in fairly handy for those of us taking photos.

All capped off by a short stop visit to a Utah-style slot canyon that used to be a waterfall (millions of years ago) and has now evolved into a busy Instagram photo destination. The evolutionary cycle of life.

Astronómico Tour

For this one, we switched to a different company, Atacama Magic. Admittedly, admiring the stars isn’t normally our thing, possibly because it is so rare that we are actually out and about in the dark. One of the best places to see the unblemished night sky is at Waskesiu Lake, where we spend most of our summer, but with the sun sticking around until 10:30-11:00 pm mucking up the view, you have to be fairly committed to still be around when the full dark kicks in. Which, coincidentally, I’m sure, only seems to ever happen when we’ve been drinking (and most likely playing cards) and our attention span for stargazing tends to be somewhat compromised.

Oh well, I guess we’ll fly way down to the southern hemisphere, then, and pay good cash ($US30/pp) to have someone force us into it. The “astronómico” tours in San Pedro de Atacama are extremely popular, with each company having a dedicated area where they take people to stargaze, listen to interesting facts about the Chilean night sky, take some cool photos and freeze their asses off. At least that’s how it went on our quite cold, windy night.

What did we learn? Well, we learned that my very meagre knowledge of constellations (big/little dipper, Orion’s accessories and, well, that’s about it) is more or less irrelevant on this side of the equator. We also learned that I think the “scorpion” is pretty cool, as far as constellations go. And not just because of my tattoo.

We learned that under very specific circumstances, even a week out from being full, the glow of the moon can be an irritation. We learned that although the provided blankets certainly helped, 5C with a 50k/hr wind is still cold, no matter how you wrap up. We learned that professional guides are WAY better at taking photos of the moon through a telescope than we are. And we learned that professional photography equipment does a better job of capturing the night sky than our phones, regardless of which cheesy poses we went with.

It was NOT news, however, to hear that Alpha Centauri is the next closest star to our solar system, a full 4 ½ light years away. I HAVE read The Three-Body Problem, after all. “Read”, I said, not “completely understood”. But still. However, I did not realize this meant the light we were currently seeing from Alpha Centauri was actually produced 4.5 years ago. Which is strange, because that should have been the easiest part to understand. Old light. A weird concept, I’d say.

Piedras Rojas

This was to be the big highlight tour so we saved it for last – less because of a flair for the dramatic and more because it was crazy windy most of the week and the forecast gave us hope for a letup by Friday. Well, some say planning around the weather is a fool’s errand but even fools get lucky now and then.

Sure, it was cold again, but sunny and calm with glorious blue skies, absolutely perfect for taking photos at high altitudes (mostly 4,000m+) where the sky often has an addictive clarity that we simply can’t get enough of (hence all those return visits to Nepal).

First stop, breakfast in the park in the village of Toconao. Cold air, eggy sandwiches.

Then our real first stop, at Laguna Chaxa, a calm, salty and epically reflective lake that just happens to be very popular with A) tourists, and B) flamingos, baby! Hundreds of ‘em! Just gawkily clomping around in the shallow water hunting for, I don’t know, bugs or whatever, what am I, a twitcher? Actually, don’t answer that, the evidence is starting pile up.

Either way, very cool. Very cool.

Next up, the Tropic of Capricorn. Or, as our guide described it, “a made-up line”. I don’t know all the details (or particularly care to Google them), but I do know it is a line of latitude and also has something to do with solstice and the sun being 90 degrees at certain times of year, etc. “You want a photo with the sign?” “Nah, we’re good”.

A little while later it was “road photo” time. You know the one – long, straight, flat road, blue sky, snow-covered mountains. Maybe it’s easier if I just show you the actual photo…

We also saw a bunch of vicuñas – like a high-altitude deer – just off the side of the road. The opposite side of the road from where Laynni was sitting in the van, no matter which direction we were headed. Authorities are currently investigating.

Then, on the way to Laguna Tuayito, our guide Rodrigo gave a very long, very fast and very frantic speech in Spanish all about volcanoes – how they are created, why these ones are different, why you shouldn’t put your tongue on magma, etc. – of which I understood about 25%. Laynni, I’m told, understood about… well, less. Not to worry, he offered us an English version, too, doled out much more slowly while we stood outside overlooking said lake, braving the absolutely freezing wind that had recently kicked up. Finally, a compelling reason to try improving my Spanish, even at the risk of having the universally panned Chilean accent leak into my already problematic pronunciation.

Then there was the Piedras Rojas (Red Stones) and Salar del Carmen viewpoints, quite close to the Argentine border. This was supposed to be a place where we entered the national park to spend some time frolicking among the red rocks but, depending who you asked, the park was either closed that day (clearly not) or the tickets had to be purchased in advance (confusing since we were on a tour) or the park officials didn’t like working in the wind (questionable as they were, in fact, working). At least the wind had finally arrived, so that part checked out. Nonetheless, the viewpoints were outstanding and we’re not at all convinced the experience would have been greatly enhanced by paying $US15 each to scramble around among the rocks themselves.

Especially since our next (and last) stop was in the sheltered lee of a completely different, completely free and also quite impressive set of red rocks. The “unofficial red stones”, apparently. Perfect place for lunch fajitas, some sneaky pees and yet more excellent photos. Not necessarily in that order.

Then it was straight back to town (2 hrs) even though we had originally planned to stop off at a couple more lakes. Not sure why we didn’t, or why I nearly vomited/passed out about halfway back, but I assume it was combination of the altitude, some version of motion sickness triggered by a winding road and exacerbated by our guide’s Friday desperation to get back to town as quickly as possible, plus the nasty head cold that was apparently on the horizon that I only fully learned the extent of the following day during our long 10-hr bus trip across the border to Salta (and for the entire week following).

Nonetheless, a very successful day and a tour I’d highly recommend.

Other Tours

These are the most popular tours that we DIDN’T try, but at least considered:

Valle de Luna (Moon Valley) – just 15 min out of town, this is a relatively cheap and easy tour that usually goes in the afternoon and stays out for sunset.

Tatio Geysers – sunrise tours that start at 4 am and involve an atmospheric dip in some very hot water steaming up into the very cold air.

Laguna Cejar – these popular tours focus on a salt pond similar (we’re told) to the Dead Sea, perfect for “swimming” and taking reflective volcano photos. Usually combined with the “ojos”, a pair of cenote-like ponds that are also quite picturesque.

Practicalities

Most places seemed to charge about 5,000 Chilean pesos (approx. $US5) less for tours in person than shown on their website.

We were able to pay with card for everything except some of the entrance fees.

The cheapest tours (Astronómico, Rainbow Valley, Moon Valley) seemed pretty close to the same price everywhere. The longer tours (Piedras Rojas, Salar de Talar) varied more.

One day a dog tried attacking us while accompanied by its unconcerned owner. We managed to fend it off while she casually repeated “tranquilo”. It wasn’t clear if she was talking to the dog or us. Anyway, I didn’t want you to think I’d go through an entire post without talking about dogs, so, you’re welcome.

Some of the better hotels in town:

We had a very enjoyable stay at Casa los Duendes, which literally mean “Elf House” or “Goblin House” but apparently there is an unofficial meaning to the word “duende” which is like a feeling of awe or appreciation. However, I’m sticking with goblin, personally.

Casa Illari la Paskana has basic but reasonably priced rooms in a convenient location with private bathrooms (not a given around here).

Meanwhile, Pirca Hostal does not offer private baths but does have a nice terrace with views, plenty of atmosphere and good prices.

San Pedro de Atacama Highlights Map

Click the star to save this map to your Google Maps – then find it under Saved/Maps (mobile) or Your Places/Maps (desktop)

San Pedro de Atacama Summary

Listen, you don’t HAVE to pay for tours to see all the best stuff. But it sure makes things easier. And most of the prices are pretty reasonable (for Chile, anyway). If you rent a vehicle, you will have more freedom to see the sights before or after the main groups. However, you still have to pay the park entrance fees. We heard that some of the roads are pretty rough but all of the ones we saw were fine and none required a 4×4.

Cactus Photo Throwback

Almost forgot to include this fantastic recreation of an iconic 2009 photo taken in the nearby Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia. Excellent work, Layne, really top drawer.

If you like this post, you might also find these interesting:

Our Northern Argentina Road Trip

Buenos Aires: 5 Great San Telmo Walking Tours

17 Outstanding San Martin de los Andes Photo Spots

Valparaiso and Santiago: Urban Legends

Puerto Varas: Lakes and Islands

The Lovely Janet Guide to Huaraz

Huayhuash Trek FAQ: Burning Questions

Uyuni Salt Flats: Would You Care for Fries with that Salt?

Rio de Janeiro: 7 Big Highlights