After breakfast we visit San Pedro de Atacama. Many years ago it was the centre of a Palaeolithic civilization that built impressive rock fortresses on the steep mountains encircling the green valley. Its colonial church was constructed in 1577. The village is the centre of the native culture of Atacama, where mummies and artefacts have been dug up. You can view them in the unique Father Le Paige Museum. Over 4.000 skulls, innumerable mummies, weapons, stone tools and pottery are on display. After visiting the museum we have time to visit Tulor, which is the oldest evidence of human life in the valley. Lunch before we start towards Toconao, a village where the local people are devoted to the manufacture of white volcanic stone sculptures. We proceed to the huge Atacama Salt Lake, an inland sea formed millions of years ago. It’s a unique experience to view the vast plain of the ogtonally shaped salt crusts in the middle of the driest desert on Earth. The flat emptiness here is overwhelming. We will observe this prolonged sunset, and then return to the hotel.