Tour Details
-
Start Time10AM
-
PricePay-What-You-Feel
-
Duration4 hours (+ a 3 hour lunch break)
-
AvailabilityEvery SINGLE day!
-
Start LocationPlaza de Armas
-
Distance9km walking
-
What To BringOnly yourself and comfy clothes, maybe slap on some sunscreen!
Are you looking to get the most out of San Pedro in just a few days? If you think football, conspiracy theories and mummies sound like an intriguing combination for a city tour, we think you will remember this walking experience. Especially because we combine an historical and cultural experience with everything you need to know about today’s San Pedro.
In the morning this tour’s grand finale is a deep dive into the San Pedro cemetery… A tour where you should expect to learn why San Pedro is the epitome of magical realism, why our lovely village has fewer pharmacies per capita than any other in Chile, and how tourists can be less touristy.
Travel back in time in the afternoon . Get to know a San Pedro’s in-depth cultural adventure around the city outskirts. We will peel back the layers of foreign influences and conquistador invasions that came through our Atacameño lands over the last 11,000 years. We explain all the culture behind the archeological sites and landscapes you visit on your outdoor excursions. Are you a curious nomad with an unusual amount of enthusiasm for culture? This tour will fill your inner desires. Charge your camera and slap on some sunscreen friends! A personal tour for northern life’s culture seekers!
To make sure everyone has a good experience on our tours, we aim to keep groups relatively small. In our experience, big groups traveling together have a higher than average no show rate, and can commandeer the tour and make other guests feel unwelcome. To be fair to all of our customers, we ask groups of over 8 to reserve a private tour or contact us on info@tours4tips.com
Why take a tour with Tours4Tips? This is San Pedro’s 1st and only pay-what-you-like tour according to Tripadvisor! We are proud to be the 1st and only city tour going out daily.
Our freelance Wally’s guides are selected on the basis of how much they love San Pedro and have a passion to share it with you.
Who should avoid our tours? Anxious and pessimistic visitors aren’t welcome; we all left stressful jobs to make less and love more. We take our time to meet, greet and share life stories in 2 hours. We offer private tours if you do not like group tours of 10-15 people.
Itinerary
PLAZA DE ARMAS
10 am: Find your bilingual freelance Wally guide waiting for you in the middle of the Plaza de Armas in San Pedro. In case you don’t know Wally wears a white and red striped T-shirt (in San Pedro, this is easier to find than the fun kids books).
10:10 am: Discover why a Belgium Jesuit priest is one of San Pedro's most important contemporary figures. Father Gustavo Le Paige might be controversial, but his archeological excavations helped put the Atacameño cultural identity on the international map.
BIODIVERSITY
10:30 am: 99% of us are not interested in anything with the word 'biodiversity' but our local guides under-promise and over deliver.
False peppers, algarrobo, chañar and brea can be tied together to explain why locals use the land instead of the limited pharmacies of San Pedro. Not only is the land used for their stomach aches and kidney infections, but in one city block we can show you how to build a home like the locals. PS. We will show you from a distance where to buy the best local arts and crafts at the Pueblo Artesanos.
Police Station
11:00 am: If you are wanted by the law, do not stop here with us as we discover how hallucinogenics, cocaine and medical plants are part of the past and present. Luckily Chilean police are not corrupt and rather friendly even if the clandestine party organisers in the desert tend to disagree.
11:15 am: We will show you the best Restaurants for dinner, from the most Gourmet to the most local.. A necessary stop is at the Carts, small shops that open only at lunch, they have vegetarian options and are the best choice for the hungry and your pocket.
FOOTBALL AND FOREIGNERS
11:30 am: Afuerino is what they call everyone NOT from here. It is a little negative but discover how to act less touristy on this tour. Chile's most famous hobby (football) happens make our country quite famous, especially Mr. Alexis Sanchez. Learn how Sanchez helped us win 2 consecutive Copa America titles and grasp the generational divide between football optimists and pessimists.
CEMETERY
11:45 am: Why are the smaller crosses located at the front of the cemetery? Why are there relatives with different spellings of the same last name? Why is Gustavo Le Paige controversial for the Atacameño people? These questions might not have answers, but a few conspiracy theories will attempt to find the answer.
PLAZA DE ARMAS
3 pm: After your well deserved lunchbreak, meet our Wally again in the middle of the Plaza de Armas in San Pedro to continue your adventure around the desert village.
SAN PEDRO CHURCH
3:15 pm: Watch how we connect Hollywood movies with Antonio Banderas to a Bolivian war here born in San Pedro to lithium cellphone batteries. The answer to how and why lies in the importance of the Atacama Desert to the Chilean people, economy, government and 19th century military interests.
3:25 pm: Sacred places, sacred symbols, sacred people? This is not historical stop on church history, learn what the cruz andina, the chakana waka, wiphala and the wenufoye are to the locals in less than 15 minutes.
CULTURE INSIDE CERAMICS
3:40pm: Stop in to meet a local ceramic artist to understand the timeline of pottery evolution in the Atacama Desert. Find out why the mummies buried in the area were placed inside pottery with their heads looking out the top lid.
ADOBE AS THE PAST AND FUTURE OF THE TOWN
3:55 pm: Discover that the ancestral knowledge for the construction of almost all the original settlements in the world focuses on the use of Adobe, and its characteristics make it the material of the future.
TIAWANUKU
4:10 pm: Laser cutting technology, deformed heads, and inhalants? What didn't the Tiawanuku change about local culture? Ayllu existed then and today. Follow us into this ancestral form of community organization.
CÒDIGIO DE AGUAS
4:30 pm: Pinochet, politics and water rights are probably not why you joined this walking adventure, but without this stop you wouldn't understand the local Licanantay people.
LICANCABUR
4:50 pm: Has history run it own course? With, to or over the local Lincantay people? They might have lost their Cunza language, their water, many of their traditions, but they still have their dignity and identity intact. Discover how they used the land 11,000 years ago and still do today. Grasp the importance of the Licancabur and a ritual involving our natural mother, Patahoiri. Don't hesitate to ask our Wally about the best places to go after your tour!
