San Pedro de Atacama

People have lived around the oases of the Salar de Atacama for thousands of years. The Atacameños, who call themselves Lickanantay, domesticated llamas, farmed the oasis and settled in villages such as Tulor, and they developed the basketry and pottery still sold in the town. How closely they were tied to the Tiwanaku culture is debated; in the 12th century they built the fortress of Pukará de Quitor above the river, and the area later came under Inca rule.

Less than a century after the Incas, the Spanish arrived, and fighting with the Atacameño communities lasted until a settlement in 1557. Colonial rule brought forced resettlement, conversion to Catholicism and the decline of the Kunza language, and the adobe church was built in the 17th century. After independence San Pedro belonged to Bolivia; it lost its role as regional capital to the port of Cobija in 1829, and Bolivia promoted alfalfa growing here to feed the mule trains between the altiplano and the coast. Chile took the area in the War of the Pacific, and the Battle of Río Grande was fought nearby.

In the 20th century the mining boom drew many people to Calama and Chuquicamata. From the late 1950s the Belgian Jesuit priest Gustavo Le Paige, the town's parish priest, carried out extensive archaeological work and founded the museum that bears his name. Tourism arrived in the 1990s and transformed the town: the commune's population grew by three-quarters between 1992 and 2002. On 18 July 2024 a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the region.

The Lickanantay communities of San Pedro and the surrounding ayllus — the farming hamlets and territories of the oasis — remain the core of local life, and many of their ceremonies blend Andean and Catholic traditions. Kunza is no longer spoken, but its words survive in place names: Puritama, the name of the hot springs, means "hot water". Archaeological sites are regarded as the heritage of the community, and at its request the Le Paige museum no longer shows its mummies.

The main festivals belong to the church calendar. The feast of the Virgen de la Candelaria on 2 February brings dance troupes to the streets, and San Pedro and San Pablo, the patron saints, are celebrated on 28 and 29 June with traditional dances, masses in the street and a small parade along the main street.

Astronomy is part of the town's identity. Several of the desert's major observatories, including the ALMA radio telescope array on the Chajnantor plateau, are in the surrounding area, and stargazing tours with telescopes are among the most popular evening activities. San Pedro now draws visitors from around the world, and the arrival of tourism since the 1990s has brought deep changes to the town.

The 2002 census counted about 5,000 people in the whole commune of San Pedro de Atacama, fewer than two-fifths of them in the town itself, and the population had grown by three-quarters in a decade.

Tourism is the main business of the town, with dozens of agencies, guesthouses and restaurants along Caracoles and the nearby streets, while farming continues in the ayllus. South of the town, the Salar de Atacama has become a major centre of lithium extraction from brine since the 2000s, and the copper mining centred on Calama and Chuquicamata dominates the wider regional economy.

Water is the great local issue, divided between farming, households, tourism and mining. The rhythm of the day follows the tours: minibuses leave before dawn for the geysers, sunset brings the trips to Valle de la Luna, and the evenings are for stargazing. Cash machines can run out of money at busy times.

Oasis cooking uses what grows in and around the desert: quinoa, potatoes, broad beans, llama meat and the fruit of the chañar tree, boiled into a syrup called arrope. Rica-rica, an aromatic Andean shrub, flavours sours, teas and ice creams, and also serves as a seasoning. Lunches at Socaire, a hamlet on the lagoon tours, use home-grown potatoes, broad beans and quinoa.

Llama meat is also grilled as anticuchos, skewers sold by local people at stops on the way back from El Tatio, together with tea and empanadas. Andean flavours sit beside dishes from central Chile, and the restaurants on Caracoles also serve international food for the town's many visitors. Prices in the town's relaxed bars and restaurants compare with those of Santiago, and some popular chain restaurants have opened on the main street.

Because almost every visitor spends long days in the desert, packed lunches, snacks and water are part of the routine, and some restaurants on the main street become bars later in the evening.