San Pedro de Atacama

We spent a whole week in San Pedro de Atacama. 😊 So, I would like to describe the village.

General: It is a tourist village, and accordingly, everything is more expensive. 💰 (I must say it is sometimes not quite fair because tourists pay a fortune compared to the locals. --> often 10 times as much 🤭 Additionally, prices have significantly increased in recent years (compared to what is stated in travel guides).) Apparently, the population is 11,000. The houses are simple (mostly without heating and poorly insulated -> consequently, it is cold inside the rooms), mainly with flat roofs.

The village hosts all tourists (guides and...), who want to make trips to the Atacama Desert, which is why this village is also called the 'Gateway to the Atacama Desert'. It is located at 2,408 m. The nearest larger city Calama is 100 km away.

Village center: In the village center, you can find a shopping and tour street (Caracoles), a village square with restaurants, a church, the police building, and the municipal house. In addition, there is an 'Artisanal Market' alongside a school, a sports field, a bus terminal, and a vegetable market.

'Main street': In the street named Caracoles, there are countless options to organize a tour or rent bicycles or a board (for sandboarding). Otherwise, there are many small shops.

Church: The village church was guarded by two dogs (in Chile, there are stray dogs everywhere, but they are very well-behaved). 😉 It is unusual that all the statues of saints are dressed. 👚👗 Across the street is the police station, next to the village square.

In San Pedro, there is always something going on due to the many tourists.

Food and drink: Everywhere, there are empanadas with various fillings. The water in this area is not drinkable, so we always bought 6-liter water containers. Yogurt can also be bought in bottles.

Surrounding roads: Around San Pedro (on the roads), there are crosses with houses (the size of a doghouse) placed at the roadside due to fatal accidents. The roads are mostly very straight, and it can be observed that the crosses are usually near curves. In some places, the wrecked cars are still lying at the roadside. We also noticed that the roads become uneven when it is very curvy (to automatically slow down). Locals speed through some places too fast. 🚗