San Pedro de Atacama is a tiny Chilean town located east of Antofagasta . It is famous primarily due to its location . From here you can get to such incredible natural attractions of Chile that will remain in your memory for life . In the strength of the fact that it is not too easy to get here either, and even more so, the town is visited more often by tourists from Chile than from other countries . But at the same time San Pedro de Atacama remains one of the three most popular tourist destinations (after Torres l-Peine and Easter Island) .
The most attractive attractions, accessible from San Pedro de Atacama, are located in the vast Los Flamencos national park: mountain lakes, the lunar valley, giant salt marshes and lakes of flamingos. But in addition to the park in the region of San Pedro, there will not be enough research space for one day. Travelers are waited here for geysers, prehistoric rock carvings, meteorites, ancient settlements, rainbow rocks, volcanoes and incredibly bright stars.
How to get to San Pedro de Atacama
The bus connection links San Pedro with Salta and Jujuy (Argentina). Several buses a day walk here from Kalama, the journey time is about 1, 5 hours. Go by bus from Antofagasta - about 4 hours, from Arica - 12 hours. You can get from Santiago, if you survive. The nearest airport is in Calama, where you can fly from the capital.
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Entertainment, excursions and attractions of San Pedro de Atacama
The village is curious by itself, although its center is only two small quarters. Main street, Karakoles, pedestrian. And if you did not find what you were looking for, at a distance of three blocks from it in any direction - most likely, you will not find it at all. Look into the little white church of San Pedro, built of adobe - bricks, in which straw is mixed. The church was built by the Spanish in the 17th century and it is considered to be the second oldest church in Chile
In the Gustavo Le Péjé Archaeological Museum you can see a collection of pottery and pottery of the indigenous inhabitants of the local places . The museum is not particularly large, but in its collection there are about 380 thousand . pre-Columbian artifacts related to the culture of the Atakameno . The museum is named after the founder, the Jesuit monk and is run by the Catholic University . And in the northern part of the city, on the Tokopylia street, you can visit the Meteorite Museum . @ It's open enthusiast-seeker meteorites and his wife . tour of the museum is held in Spanish and English .
Nearby, three kilometers from the town, is located the pre-Columbian fortress of Pukara de Kitor . This is a stone terrace building, which is already more than 700 years old, and it is listed as a national monument of the country . And in the south, 6 km from San -Pedro de Atacama, is one of the oldest archaeological sites in the country, the settlement of Tulor . The oldest buildings on the territory of 5200 sq. M . m are dated between 380 in . before . e . and 200 in . before . e . Here you can see the characteristic round houses-mud huts, and with their inspection it is better to hurry: Tulor is included in the number 100 world monuments threatened with destruction .
- To buy baskets and ceramics in the style of attackameno in the museum store
- Go to the evening tour for observation of the stars (organized by a local company SPACE, with a theoretical lecture, or independent).
- Visit a two-day festival with dances and a small parade on the main street. The first day, June 28, is dedicated to St. Peter, and the next - St. Paul.
About 80 km north of the village is the valley of the El-Taisho geysers . This is an amazing and almost mystical place in the Andes, 430 m above sea level . In translation "El-Taisho" means "grandfather", and this plateau is one of the highest mountain geysers in the world . Plus it is the largest Heyzer plateau in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest in the world: on the plateau there are more than 80 geysers . The average height reached by the streams that beat them is 75 cm, and the most The most spectacular sight of El-Taisho is at sunrise, when each geyser is surrounded by a column of steam that forms while the air is still cold . Every year more than 100 thousand . come to look at this miracle. @.tourists .
A hundred miles from San Pedro de Atacama is the Miscanti lagoon and the neighboring Minykes lagoon, two mountain lakes at an altitude of 4200 m. They are surrounded by a volcano Minykes and Miskanti Mountain. Lake Miscanti in the form of a heart opens the look of the traveler as a perfectly flat surface of a rich blue color, incredibly calm and lifeless. From the neighboring lake it is separated by a lava flow, which froze here after the eruption. The lagoon is part of the national park of Los Flamencos.
Also there is a symmetrical stratovolcano in the Salar de Atacama area . The height of this powerful giant is 5920 m . The lower two thirds of the northeastern slope of the volcano belong to Bolivia, and the third part, the summit and the crater, - Chile . In a crater about 400 m wide, a lake with a diameter of approximately 80 m was formed, which is covered with ice for most of the year . This is one of the highest lakes in the world . Lovers of the mountain hiking and so there is something to do in the vicinity of San Pedro: Mount Toko (5604 m) and Laskar volcano (5510 m) are considered to be the easiest to climb (the route for the day), Mount Pili (6064 m) and Seyrekabur (5971 m) more difficult . But Likankabur challenges real climbers . in height, he does not overtake the above, to climb to the top, it will take at least three days .
Vale del Arcoiris (" Rainbow Valley ") is about an hour's drive from San Pedro .It is named because of the tremendous variety of colors of the local rocks . It is caused by different concentration of salt in the rock . The valley panorama is amazing: a flat terracotta desert framed by green-white-red mountains, among which there are extremely bizarre forms created erosion . On the way to the valley tourists pass a place where till now on the rocks one can see prehistoric petroglyphs depicting lamas, foxes, shamans and flamingos .
Weather conditions in the Atacama desert region makes it an ideal place to observe the stars . At a distance of about 50 kilometers east of the town is a group of observatories Llano de Chajnantor, which stands in the mountains of the Atacama Desert, at an altitude of 4800 m . Here is ALMA, a powerful radio telescope with a diameter of 12 and 7 m that allows observing millimeter and submillimeter waves . ALMA started operating in 2011 . and launched at full capacity in 2013 . It is used to study distant galaxies, comets and the formation of new planets . It is an international project, involving Europe, USA, Canada, East Asia and Chile Book .
popular hotels San Pedro de Atacama at the best prices
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