San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama grew, over centuries, around an oasis in the Puna de Atacama, an arid high plateau. Its first inhabitants were the Atacameños, who developed basketworks and ceramic pottery crafts that can be now be appreciated by tourists in the several souvenir shops as typical products of San Pedro de Atacama. There is debate over what degree of connection the Atacameños had to the Tiwanaku culture. It was part of Bolivia since independence from Spain until Chile claimed ownership during the War of the Pacific. During that war, the Battle of Río Grande was fought in the surroundings. With the creation of Atacama Province in 1829 San Pedro de Atacama lost its traditional status as regional capital to the port Cobija. …

The town lies at an average of 8,000 feet (2,400 m), thus visitors often experience mild altitude sickness such as dizziness, lethargy and headaches. The local climate is extremely dry and mild, with daytime temperatures between 25–30 degrees Celsius (77–86 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer (December to February) and 18–25 °C (64–77 °F) in the winter (June to August). Nighttime temperatures routinely drop below 0 °C (32 °F) and can reach as low as −10 °C (14 °F) in the winter. The record high temperature of 38.3 °C (100.9 °F) was registered in January 2024 in San Pedro de Atacama. Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as cold desert (BWk) for an isotherm of the mean yearly temperature of lower than 18 °C (64 °F).

San Pedro de Atacama is a popular tourist destination. There are various activities for adventurers in the San Pedro de Atacama area: trekking, climbing, archaeological sightings, amateur astronomy, exploration tours in natural landscapes and even sand boarding in the desert. Because of its altitude, a brief period of acclimatization may be required. In the town are some cultural and scientific sites: R. P. Gustavo Le Paige Archaeological Museum, displaying ceramics and pottery crafts from the first inhabitants of the area. Church of San Pedro de Atacama a National Monument, built with adobe, a building material used in the colonial times. Meteorite Museum displays and explains meteorites of various compositions, from various celestial sources, some of which an international collaboration has gathered in the large, infrequently disturbed collection area of the Atacama. …

San Pedro lies on the main paved road from Argentina over the Paso de Jama, 160 km from the town. The road is paved throughout. There are frequent bus services to Calama, several buses daily to Santiago and buses on 6 days a week to Salta across the Andes in Argentina. Nearby airports are San Pedro de Atacama Airport and Salar de Atacama Airport for private aircraft, and the larger El Loa Airport/Calama 100 km away for scheduled aircraft.

According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, San Pedro de Atacama had 4,969 inhabitants (2,928 males and 2,041 females). Of these, 1,938 (39%) lived in urban areas and 3,031 (61%) in rural areas. The population grew by 75.6% (2,140 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.