n the middle of the Atacama desert lies the Pukará de Lasana, which is a fortress built in the 12th century. It was declared a National Monument for its achitecture and cultural importance.
The National Monument of Lasana Pukara is a pre-Columbian fortress that was built on top of a cliff next to the Loa River. It is located next to the town of the same name. Built around the 12th century as a town-fortress, it currently preserves its old architecture of narrow streets, rectangular and circular buildings made of stone.
The houses vary in size and design, but most of them had storage silos for keeping food products like corn, meat, and some herbs.
Location: Región de Antofagasta, 258 km (161.25 mi) northwest of the city of Antofagasta, 45 kms north of Calama, and 10 kms northeast of San Francisco de Chiu Chiu.
How to get there: Santiago-Calama: by air or by land. To arrive at Lasana from Calama you can go directly to Pukara or stop at Chiu-Chiu first. In both cases you should leave Calama by taking the international route to Bolivia via Ollague (to the northeast). After 29 kms take the left detour that leads to El Abra mine, and you will arrive to Pukara after 41 km on this paved route. If you don't want to take this detour, the route continues straight to Chiu-Chiu (paved road). Fom this point continue northwards through a gravel road, and you will come to a fork. Take the road to the left and just a little further down you will arrive in Lasana.
Services: No services available.
Gastronomy
Within San Pedro de Atacama, there is a great variety of places to taste, like the typical Atacama food, pizzas to the stone or even different vegetarian option that use the vegetables and more typical vegetables of the zone.
How to go
Plane: Flight from Santiago – Calama (2 hours 10 minutes)
Bus: 20 hours from Santiago to Calama.
From Calama you can take a tour to go to the pukará the lasana
Recommendations
We recommend you that you schedule your flight to Calama to arrive in the morning so you are able to participate in the scheduled activities without affecting the itinerary.
This place has a desertic weather and it’s also some meters above sea levels, which means that throughout the year there is a very large temperature oscillation between day and night. The average annual temperature is between 14° C and 3 ° C.
Many of the excursions and tours that are done include visiting places that are in the Chilean plateau, 3,500 above sea levels. This means that people may experience altitude sickness. It is important that people drink lots of water so they keep their body well hydrated. People shouldn’t make sudden or harsh movements, and let their body get used to the heights and the altitude.
There are few ATMs in San Pedro de Atacama. You have to consider that the demand for these ATMs is high, so they don’t always have money. We advise you to bring some cash with you.
Stores in rural areas are open all day, but they close between 13.00 and 15.00. We advise you to carry local currency (Chilean pesos), since it isn’t possible to pay with debit or credit cards in kiosks and rural stores.
Do not throw garbage on the beaches, parks or streets. To take care of our environment is everyone's responsibility. Avoid fines by following the rules.
+56 (9) 6309 1076
