Chile San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is a mixture of provincial villages, tour operators, souvenir shops and fast food stalls, oases, dust and heat as well as indigenous people and many tourists from all over the world.
Deep in the Atacama Desert, situated on the salt cordillera and the huge Salar de Atacama, there is fresh water here after all, presumably from the Andes massif. Nearly a dozen five- and six-thousand-metre peaks form the backdrop.
The town is firmly in the hands of the fit and young as well as backpackers. At an altitude of 2,440 m, it is a kind of base camp for excursions to very unusual scenic beauties in the immediate and wider surroundings, some at more than 4,000 m.

Walking