We spent a glorious getaway to the Atacama Desert, Chile, where we hiked five amazing trails, stayed within budget and enjoyed an active senior adventure over 5 days and 4 nights. While there are dozens of things to do in Atacama, we focused on getting out on trails and walks that fit our moderate hiking style. No poles necessary!
Day 1 Calama to San Pedro de Atacama Itinerary
Our trip started in Calama, Chile, where we flew into from Santiago. We grabbed a rental car (we recommend you get a 4×4, but you can do this itinerary with a regular front-wheel drive car, too), and quickly named our car the Gutless Wonder. Although she completed our trip, getting in and out of Calama requires climbing some tall mountains and lots of altitude. If you can afford a 4×4, grab one. Below I share all of our costs.
Before leaving Calama, we stopped in the local Lider (the Walmart of South America) and loaded up on fresh water (you can’t drink from the tap in San Pedro de Atacama.) We also found cheap puffer vests for $12 to wear in the evenings where the weather ranged from 40-85 degrees. We then made the 75 minute drive to San Pedro de Atacama.
This dusty and very dry town in the middle of the desert is the gateway to the Atacama desert. Dirt roads run thru its center, vicunas and donkey herd themselves by, and dogs roll on their backs for tummy rubs. Tour offices intersperse between restaurants with menu del dias for $9 and souvenir shops selling ponchos. We weren’t sad that our Sami Lodge, a 25 minute walk from town, wasn’t in the center. It didn’t need to be.
After checking in and getting a tour of the pool, hot tub, star gazing deck, and the breakfast nook, we dropped our bags in our comfy room at Sami Resort and headed for our first sunset. A free stop at the Mirador Likan-Antay, we joined many others to applaud the sun’s final performance. We had a big day planned for our first full day in Atacama, and wanted a good night’s sleep.
You can read many other blog posts about all the things people recommend. It can get quite overwhelming because Atacama doesn’t seem to have any organization to it. No central website seems to gather all the options. It’s a bit frustrating. After reviewing everyone else’s posts, I still left feeling a bit unsettled about picking the things we wanted to do. I finally decided to organize Atacama around three things:
- Could we drive to the location in our little front-wheel, car, The Gutless Wonder? This criteria eliminated some of the more popular destinations like the Tatio Geysers. We’re not sorry we missed them. Afterall, we’ve seen geysers around the world in Iceland and Yellowstone, to name a few.
- Would there be a good hike or walk at the location that wasn’t too strenuous and would apply to moderate senior hikers? This eliminated the higher elevation hikes in the calderas.
- Did it cost a reasonable amount? Most entry fees were less than $10, but they did add up (see costs below.)
We wanted to visit the best of Atacama and enjoy its range of beauty–from volcanos to salt flats to ravines. So we created an itinerary where we did the lowest elevations first and working our way to the highest elevations on the third day. As previous Denver residents, we knew that acclimating to the altitude would make enjoying the sites at the higher elevations easier. We also carried gallons of water with us to drink liters at at time. It’s that dry–and drinking water helps alleviate altitude sickness and altitude discomfort.
Day 2 Valle de La Muerte and Valle da La Luna
We stumbled upon the Valle de La Muerte by accident, thinking we were somewhere else. But curiosity got the best of us, so we paid the entry fee and drove on the dirt road through the canyon to the designated parking spot. Flanked on both sides of our car were tricked out 4×4 trucks with sandboarding equipment.
To our right, a tall sand dune sported athletes flying and falling down the sand on their slick snowboards turned sand boards. From beginners to experts, young to old, they made their way down the dune. For $12 an hour, we almost tried it. But a hike to the mirador tempted us more.
Up a dirt road we climbed in the heat. About 20 minutes later, we arrived at the foot of the path to the mirador and worked our way up the trail. The only thing difficult about the hike was the altitude and the heat. At the top, we measured about 9200 feet. But the view! Not only could we watch more sandboarding, but the undulating red canyons of erosion made deep gnashed marks on the desert floor and infinite views took our eyes all the way to the salt flats.
Back at the car (4 km total away), we replenished our water from our 3-gallon supply and made our way to the Valle de La Luna. At the info desk, we showed our prepaid tickets, got our lessons on etiquette once again, and received a map. Due to the heat, we selected two hikes to attempt and decided we’d just drive by the other sites.
The first 2km hike to Duna Mayor had us climbing up a sandy, beach like trail of white sand flanked by white dunes on the right and a red canyon wall on the right. The white sand turned pink as we climbed to the mirador, where we found an infinite view down the spine of a rose-colored dune framed by a bright blue sky. The Amphitheatre, a geologic feature of a spoon rimmed in red ridges, framed the view to the right.
We continued driving through the Valle to the end to see the Guards (Three Marys), and then stopped at the Mina de Sal. Have you ever hiked on quartz? It seemed every other step along the gritty path to the old salt mine dripped with unmined quartz, sparkling in the sand. I wish I’d had a pick and shovel!
At the mouth to the mine, a sign didn’t need to tell me not to go inside! To the left of the mine, we enjoyed looking at old mining equipment. We laughed at what we thought was a jail, but was actually an old miner’s home. Although the 1km trail didn’t challenge our legs, it did challenge our thoughts about mines, mine safety, salt, and salt abundance.
By 4 pm, we wanted to escape the heat and cool off. A dip in the pool at Sami Resort cooled us off enough to go back out in the evening. Our Valle de La Luna tickets gained us access to the MIrador de Kari for sunset. We parked and walked to the most western end of the viewing point, sat down, and watched the sun encore with a green flash.
Day 3 Aguas Calientes/Rioja Piedras and Chaxa Lagoon
We saved Aguas Calientes/Rioja Piedras for the final day to their altitude. It’d be the highest point in the Atacama desert that we’d visit, and although we had lived in Denver for awhile, we knew a bit of acclimation in San Pedro would be helpful.
We pointed the Gutless Wonder to the furthest place we’d drive and settled in for an hour’s ride to Sociare, the check in point for Aguas Calientes. After showing our prepaid tickets, we entered the park and continued to the famed red rocks.
At the parking lot, they checked our IDs again and advised us to go slowly. At 13000 feet, making the 2km walk to lagoon’s edge was no joke. A bit downhill on the way there, we found people resting on the side of the trail, struggling with the altitude. I was too excited to walk slowly. I couldn’t wait to take in the view.
One of my favorite trails in Moab takes you along the red slick rock to the canyon. Unlike Moab, this slick rock took us to a lagoon. Passing over red rocks to the water’s edge, rimmed with salt like a margarita, we could look out to the mountains around. I imagine the famous Rainbow Mountain elsewhere in Peru has some competition here. I’d call this the Rainbow ridge. After taking pics, I just sat down to take the view in.
When we left Aguas Calientes, we headed toward the two lakes at Lagunas Altiplánicas that were included with our admission. But the Gutless Wonder took one look at the washboard road that climbed the hill and said no way. So we passed it by and continued to our next stop for the day, Chaxa Lagoon.
We’re glad we did. By the time Google took us the wrong way by over 50km and we arrived at Chaxa (ASK YOUR HOTEL HOST FOR THE RIGHT COORDINATES), the heat and altitude had taken its toll. But the thought of seeing flamingos encouraged us on, and we gleefully parked, showed our prepaid tickets, and made our way down the 2km trail.
The first part of the trail looked like the 20km of terrain we’d already driven–ancient giant oyster beds for miles. I don’t know if they really were oyster beds, but they certainly looked like them. The first stop on the trail, a small watering hole, homed white lizards eyeing us curiously. The next shared the tale of the ring of over a dozen volcanos in the area. But the third stop dropped me in my tracks.
Flamingos! All three kinds. Some with pink legs, some with black. Beaks of white, yellow, black. Feathers of white, pink, rose, and blush. And they were talking to each other! honk honk! Their long legs mucked the lagoon’s floor while their front-end loader beaks slurped up tiny brine shrimp. Snow peaked volcano calderas framed the scene.
When we got back to our hotel, we were starving! Our host gave us a ride into town, and we grabbed a $9 dinner at Cafe de la Vida. The menu del dia came with salad, fish or pasta, and dessert. Delicious!
Day 4 Valle de Los Cactus
By the time day 4 rolled around, we were eager for something different. We’d seen red rocks and salt flats, what else might tempt us? Steve uncovered a trail via AllTrails that took us in a canyon along a river. What a nice change of pace!
We made our way to the Valle de Los Cactus, parked, and were delighted to not have to pay any entry fees. Our Hoka Hopara hiking sandals (the perfect hiking sandal for travel), made for this terrain, sloshed us across a shallow section of the stream once or twice until we found the trail.
We journeyed along the river bank, then the trail meandered through rocks causing us to scramble a bit with our hands, then the trail disappeared into a make-your-own adventure. We scrambled and scurried around boulders to the high point above the waterfall of 10 feet. The waterfall, frankly, wasn’t that spectacular. But what was?
The cactus! We hadn’t seen any cactus in this desert up to this point, but now stands of saguaro-style cactus (Giant Cardon) stood sentry all over the canyon. Their prickly arms jutted to the blue-bird sky up and down the canyon while we listened to the stream fall its path and eyed the snow-capped peaks in the distance.
Past the waterfall, the trail was undeveloped and frankly too dangerous to continue. So we returned to the car after only about 3km. But it’d been a workout! We found a quaint cafe up the street to cool off with some lunch and a chat with the local about the rise of tourism coming their way. His cafe, still under construction, seemed to be in the right place at the right time.
We also did a video about our entire trip to Atacama, and you can watch it here.
Total Cost for 5 days/4 nights in San Pedro de Atacama
Our total costs for 5 days and 4 nights in Atacama desert broke down like this:
Hotel $360
Gas $55
Food $90
Flights $220
Car $155
Total $964
Chris Englert, the Walking Traveler, believes walking is the platform for life. Wanderlusting since the age of 5, she’s since traveled all 50 US states and 62 countries. Chris shares her love of walking while traveling via blogs, books, and presentations. A natural storyteller, she invites you along as she explores the world, one walk at a time.
Currently, Chris and her husband, Steve, travel the world, full-time as nomads, with just their two carry-ons. They’ve been traveling since May, 2021.