Day 64 - 07 Feb.2012 - Susques

Having seen many ‘natural wonders’ we decided that instead of driving to see the Geysers in El Tatio we would go to visit the Pukará de Quitor.
Located just 3km north from San Pedro, the Pukará de Quitor is a ruined twelfth-century fortress built into a steep hillside on the west bank of the Ro San Pedro. It was partly restored and with a bit of imagination you can picture the former fortress. But the most rewarding is the view from the top of the hill giving beautiful panoramic view over San Pedro and surrounding desert.
After the morning hike we returned to the campsite, packed our staff, had a shower and went for the last time into town to have a stroll among the peppercorn trees. As the Iglesia de San Pedro was open today, we went inside to have a look. It is one of the largest Andean churches in the region. What drew our attention was the construction of the roof. The underside is made of what turned out to be dried cactus wood and the joints were fixed with straps of leather. From the outside the roof is entirely covered in clay, which gives it a very organic shape.
We left Sand Pedro after lunch and headed towards Paso Jama and Susques in Argentina. San Pedro is located at 2400m but in order to get to Paso Jama we had to drive up to 4400m! The change in temperature and oxygen is quite significant. We felt OK but our car engine lost a bit of its power, especially going uphill.
Many times driving through the desert we saw inscriptions made of stones on the hills. You can see them all over the place, something like a ‘stone graffiti’. We liked the idea and back in Antofagasta we collected some white shells to use them for our own little graffiti. We stopped on our way to Paso Jama and ‘shelled’ our names onto the Atacama soil.
As we continued our way to the Argentinean border, we drove through heavy sleet and rain shower with some thunder and lightning. We stopped for the night at a little hotel just outside Susques, some 120km into Argentina.