San Pedro de Atacama - day cinco

Since it was our last day in San Pedro we decided it would be fitting to do another bike ride, this time to a site that the tour groups don't visit. We had managed to convince the two Singapore boys, Kelvin and Khalid to join us as well. After we had booked ourselves in for the 3 day jeep tour to Uyuni in Bolivia, leaving the following day, the four of us set off for the cruisy ride down a dirt road and reached El Pukara de Quitor only 3km out of town. The ruins were a fortress that overlooked the San Pedro river and was used for defensive purposes and to help control ancestral trafficking. 

Once exploring the ruins there was also a track that wound its way up the hill to give a panoramic view of the surrounding area. It was about 45mins up to the top but it was well worth the hike, even if it was in the heat of the day as the views from the summit were incredible. We could look out and see the dune that we had sand boarded on a few days before as well as get a good view of the town and the mountains in the distance.

After some more great photo ops we meandered down the hill and jumped back on the bikes for a final bit of exploring. We ended up heading up a canyon for about 10 mins which was tough going but we eventually turned around and so of course got a sweet downhill run as a reward for our hard work. By that stage the sun was disappearing all too quickly (a common theme in our days it seems!) so we decided to call it a day and head back into town before we froze.

As it was our last night in Atacama we thought we had better have one last dinner with our hostel friends. The top restaurant on Trip Advisor was a place called Baltinache and as it was off the main tourist strip it promised to be a bit more of an authentic experience. It didn't disappoint with a 3 course meal that was very tasty and very reasonably priced. A great way to end our favourite stop so far.