San Pedro de Atacama

This was our first full day in San Pedro and we didn't do much today. I think we were both feeling the effects of the elevation, the heat, the sun and were tired from our travel day. Cheryl a little more so than myself.

I left Cheryl at our hotel and drove several km out of town to an archeological site. It was a pre Inca fort known as Pinkura de Quinta built on the banks of the San Pedro river by the Atacama Indians for protection from other indigenous groups in 1100. The Atacama had fallen under control of the Incas in 1350 but it was still used as a fort until the Conquistadors had arrived. It consisted of the remains of brick walls of the buildings and the brick walls of the outer wall. One couldn't go to the site but one could walk around the perimeter and look down on the buildings before waking up a 300 metres to a look out that commanded a pretty good view of the surrounding valleys. I felt the elevation as I tired easily. The hike was worth it as it commanded great views of some surrounding valleys with some very interesting rock formations. It was about 11 am and was the sun pretty intense. I went through 2 litres of water. I headed back to the hotel and spent the afternoon chilling and having a nap. I headed out later in the afternoon for a water run. We were told by a British couple we met to expect to drink at least 6 lites of water excluding juice and tea. I also visited a very modest archeological museum which had some unique artifacts including ancient textiles. A Belgian Jesuit lived in the area in the 60s and excavated a lot of ancient graves.

My impression of San Pedro. The hotel we are staying in is nice enough but the rest of the town appears to have been constructed with no building code The buildings are all one story. Many of the buildings are thrown together with multiple types of building material. The buildings look like what a scout pack would come up with if they could use salvaged building supplies but had a limited time. Like something built on a reality tv show by people with no building experience. Corrugated steel sheets figure prominently in the construction. Many of the streets are dirt and the streets paved with paving stones are fine until there are areas where the stones have been pulled up and no one has brothered to replace them resulting in major potholes. Google maps seems determined to take me down the worse streets in town. There are abundant dogs scrolling around town. I don't think they are strays but they are just put out. Last night all the dogs started barking at 2 am. This supposedly occurs ever night at 2 am.To summarize San Pedro is a dump.

Cheryl had rallied by the evening. It cools off quite nicely in the evening and it was pleasant to walk the town and people watch and marvel that the town hadn't burnt down from lacking of a building code. Mainly Chilean tourists with some European and North American tourists.Baca lagi