San Pedro de Atacama grew, over centuries, around an oasis in the Puna de Atacama, an arid high plateau. Its first inhabitants were the Atacameños, who developed basketworks and ceramic pottery crafts. It was Bolivian from independence until Chile got ownership during the War of the Pacific
The place to see is the 'Moon Valley' , this part of the Salt Mountain Range offers stunning clinal and anticlinal formations in a perfectly barren landscape. The large stone walls resemble those of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, sans river. Among its prime attractions are the Grand Crater, the Salt Canyon, the Three Maries and salt mines, the Salt Caves, the Cari Viewpoint (also called 'Piedra del Coyote'. This location is off the road to Calama and not actually in the Valle de Luna ), and Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley).
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The Bendito Desierto restauant is best avoided by discerning tourists. Even the two bears attempt to chat up the bar maid ended in failure and rejection.
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A very quick walk through the town on the way back to the bus
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Salar de Atacama is the largest salt flat in Chile, and the 3rd largest in the world, after the ones in Bolivia and Argentina. It is surrounded by mountains, and has no drainage outlets. Large volcanoes dominate the landscape. All of them are located along the eastern side of the Salar de Atacama, forming a generally north-south trending line of volcanoes that separate it from smaller endorheic basins.
Salar de Atacama is the world's largest and purest active source of lithium, containing 27% of the world's lithium reserve, providing almost 30% of the world's lithium carbonate supply. High lithium concentration in its brine (2,700 parts per million), a high rate of evaporation (3,500 mm per year), and extremely low annual rainfall (<30 mm average per year) make Atacama's finished lithium carbonate easier and cheaper to produce than can be produced in the neighbouring Salar de Uyuni, which is estimated to have half of the lithium reserves in the world.
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Moon Valley or El Valle de la Muerte and El Valle de la Luna is 13 kilometres west of San Pedro de Atacama, in the Cordillera de la Sal. They have various stone and sand formations which have been carved by wind and water. The scenery is spectacular. It has an impressive range of colour and texture, looking somewhat similar to the surface of the moon. There are also dry lakes where the composition of salt gives a white covering layer to the area. It presents diverse saline outcrops which appear like man-made sculptures. There are also a great variety of caverns.
The valley is also considered one of the driest places on earth, as some areas have not received a single drop of rain in hundreds of years. A prototype for a Mars rover was tested there by scientists because of the valley's dry and forbidding terrains.
We had been to San Pedro last year - see photos then and spent 4 days there. This time it was only for a few hours.
Actually it was a badly organised trip by Silverseas for a number of reasons - no toilet stops on the 5 hour coach journey, and our complaint badly dealt with by the expedition staff on board. The limited time at San Pedro was split between the Valle de la Luna and the Salt Pan, which necessitated spending 2 hours extra on the bus to get back and forth, therefore little time at either venue. The trip would have been much better if they had just invested all the time on the Valle de la Luna. And the lunch was in a rubbish mass tourism cafe, bad when you consider the decent hotels in the area that could have provided lunch.
So we left the ship at 7am, got to San Pedro at 12 noon. After lunch at the not to be recommended Bendito Desierto cafe, there was a long haul in the bus to the Salar, where few flamingos were in evidence. We then returned to Moon Valley, which was just a drive through, 10 minutes at the 3 Maries, and 10 minutes near the big dunes. I felt that the tour did not do justice to the place, one could have seen so much more
We stopped at the Cari viewpoint on the way back for a supper and some wine, plus a small "traditional" demonstration of the spirits of the local indians.
After this it was the 5 hours drive back to the ship, but this time with a loo stop in a petrol station, begrudged by Travis who was in charge, but I noticed even the expedition staff queued up to use the facilities when we stopped.. I spoke to Kara about this afterwards - Silverseas needs a company policy, spelt out clearly to Expedition Leaders and to ground agents, that a toilet stop needs to be factored in every 2 to 3 hours
The voyage on Silversea Explorer in South America