San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is a village of adobe walls and dirt streets around a white colonial church, in an oasis of the driest desert on earth. The Pukará de Quitor, a fortress of the Atacameño people, looks over it from the north. Around it, the Valle de la Luna (Atacama) shows ridges of salt and clay carved by the wind; the Salar de Atacama, to the south, has the flamingos of Laguna Chaxa; higher up, the altiplanic lagoons of Miscanti and Miñiques sit under the volcanoes, and the Tatio geysers steam at dawn at more than four thousand metres.

The first day should be gentle, with a walk in the village and the Valle de la Luna at sunset, because of the altitude. Then the high days: the Tatio before sunrise, with a stop at the Puritama hot springs on the way back; the salt flat, the village of Toconao and the altiplanic lagoons; a night of stargazing, which the dry air makes unforgettable. San Pedro can be reached from Calama airport, an hour and a half away, from Purmamarca over the Paso de Jama, or from Uyuni across the altiplano, arriving through the Hito Cajón border.

The only variation is the Bolivian winter, in January and February, when storms can close the high roads to the lagoons and the geysers for some days.