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The town resembles a cross between a Pennsylvania mining town and an old frontier town of the Western US. San Pedro de Atacama was the most populated town in pre-Columbian times. Visit the outstanding Archaeology Museum, a must see in Chile. The Valley of the Moon is a mysterious valley, which turns brilliant colors and shimmers in the moonlight. The Pukara is a mountainside stone fortress built by the Atacama Indians. |
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| ESSENCE OF THE AREA |
| Calama and San Pedro de Atacama are in the mystical, magical and desolate Andean desert of Atacama, with valleys filled with archaeological treasures such as churches and villages. You will also find breathtaking salt flats, geysers, volcanoes, lagoons and thermal springs. Highly recommended to the adventure and nature lover.
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| GETTING THERE |
AIR:
Daily flights from Antofagasta, Arica and Santiago
BUS:
Only from Antofagasta or Iquique.
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| RECOMMENDED STAY |
| Four days and three nights if you stay in town and if you stay in Explora you will need to choose from the 4nights or 7 nights program
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| RECOMMENDED SIGHTSEEING & ACTIVITIES |
Atacama Desert:
Discover for yourself the many wonders of the Atacama Desert, the most arid desert in the world. Spectacular landscapes and natural phenomena abound wherever you look. And in all this immensity, tiny villages such as Parinacota, Caspana, Socoroma, Surire or Isluga still maintain traditions of their Aymara ancestors. The influence of Spanish colonization is still evident in the churches architecture.
Calama City:
The city of Calama, 214 kilometers from Antofagasta, is an oasis in the middle of the desert. An ideal basecamp for sightseeing trips to nearby places of interest such as El Tatio Geysers at 3,550 meters above sea level, where great pillars of water and steam, rise up some 10 meters high and reach temperatures of 85C. At 100 kilometers to the southeast lies the arid wasteland of the Valley of the Moon. Towards the north, the village of Chiu-Chiu has several attractions including the nearby 150 meter deep Chiu-Chiu Lagoon, an astonishing natural phenomenon in the middle of the desert.
From Calama, you can also visit the huge amphitheatre of the biggest open-cast mine in the world-Chuquicamata. As the largest of the twelve salt flats in the Northern Region, the Salt Lake of Atacama is especially interesting. It stretches out like a vast white lake as far as the eye can see and its banks are the habitat of unique species of fauna.
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| MUST SEE |
| Quitor, Tudor, a 2,800 year old village partially buried by the desert sand; Toconao; Atacama Salt Flat; Moon Valley; El Tatio Geysers, at 4,500 meters high, gushes fumaroles at dawn.
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