San Pedro de Atacama Regions Guide - overview

This desert oasis village, having been continuously inhabited for 10,000 years, was prized by the Inca and Tihuanaco Empires for its mineral wealth and importance as a stopover on the caravan trade routes. It sits at the northern end of the Salar de Atacama, a vast salt lake that is home to a variety of bird life.Today it is one of the major destinations of northern Chile and an attractive, albeit touristy village. It has a little 17th-century church built with local materials and a small well-organised museum. San Pedro is close to archaeological sites, bird life of the salt flats and Valle de la Luna, and lies within easy reach of the nearby altiplano and the El Tatio Geysers.