The atacameños (atacama people) as they are called in the North of Chile or the atacamas, as the North of Argentina reffers to them, are the native indigenous group of the Atacama Desert. Their original name is lickan-antay, which means “the inhabitants of the territory” and their native tongue, kunza, is an extinct tongue, however some of the words used coloquially today- and even though they are thought to be quechua- are actualy  some sort of kunza slang.

The atacama people live between the South of Bolivia and the North of Chile and Argentina, and as such are the true desert dwellers and today have mostly mixed with the criollos, or spanish descendants, so in strict terms they are not extinct, as you will sometimes find is said.

For centuries they have been growing food in the driest lands on Earth, making good use of the scarce water supplies and farming with the renowned terrace system. Their livestock being the llama and alpaca, which they have used for their meat, wool and to carry load.

The original foods they lived on are included in the menu of  Alto Atacama Hotel and consist on a generouus variety of some produce like: pumpkins and squash, peppers, beans, prickly pear, corn, potato and quinua, they also grew tobacco in their terrace systems.

When you come to visit us, you can also learn more about these fascinating people at the P. R. Le Paige Museum, which has the most complete collection you could find about the atacameños´ history and arqueology.