San Pedro de Atacama - Day 2... Justin's Bike Ride

Volcano Licancabur, early morning

On Thursday, while Kelli was checking out the archeological museum in town, I decided to check out some cool local archeological sites.  There were two fairly close ones to San Pedro – la Aldea de Tulor, a buried Atacameño village that has only been partially excavated due to its fragility, and the Pukará de Quitor, a very old fortress built by the Incans.  Since the weather is beautiful and the scenery is spectacular, I decided to head out to both of these sites on a bicycle. 

Listo!

I left in the morning to avoid the midday smothering heat.  Tulor was about 11 km away down the main road to the Valle de la Luna, and the route had me passing by a very cool vista of the Andes mountain range and the volcano Licancabur.

Volcano Licancabur always looms in the background

I then passed through a local village, winding through the dusty streets and following the signs to Tulor, which I eventually found.

Once I arrived, I was greeted by the local Atacameño guides, who instructed me to follow a dusty trail to the site, which was flanked by a wooden walkway and an observation post.

The inside of one of the mock-ups of what a hut might have looked like

There, waiting for me, was another guide, who told me about the history of the site as well as the problems with its excavation.  She also walked me through one of her favorite (and well-worn) books about the history of the region and the Atacameño people.

These are the ruins - what you're looking at is where the roofs are supposed to be, and there is sand filling each of the homes, which are all connected.

Me and Tulor

In the shadow of the volcano, as always.

After my stay there, I ventured off, determined to avoid the impending death by the sun, as at this point the sun was hovering straight overhead with not a cloud or shade in sight.  I ended up getting lost heading back through the small village and inadvertently found some quaint scenes of rustic life, which at that point were less interesting to me than getting back to San Pedro, because the combination of heat and altitude adjustment made the biking part rather challenging!  Fortunately, I found my way back to the main road and was back in San Pedro in no time.  But still having about an hour before I was to meet Kelli, I decided after a bit of rest to go see the Pukará de Quitor, which was 3km down a bumpy dirt road with several large pools of stagnant water (where the water came from I have no clue) that I had to circumnavigate.  But strenuous bike ride aside, I managed to will up enough strength to make it to the site.

The Pukará de Quitor was quite impressive – even from far away it looked like something important.

Definitely not a normal hillside

And when I got there, it was really cool to climb up the steep hill surrounded by old structures whose order and sense of purpose seemed to defy the untamed landscape around it.  And once at the top, I had a really great vista of San Pedro as well as the Andes range!

At the top of the Pukará

The many "rooms" of the fortress as seen while strolling the walkways

But as much as I hate to admit it, boy was I happy that my watch told me it was just about time to meet Kelli for lunch, and so after copious hydration I rode back to the hostel.  And from there, it was lunch and off to the Laguna Cejar in the afternoon!  After that strenuous bike ride, nothing sounded better to me than floating effortlessly in a pit of brine.