We leave the hotel on the bicycles crossing the beautiful Quitor Valley, and its colourful cropland. Visit the town of San Pedro de Atacama. We continue to the Quitor Ayllu and back to the Alto Atacama Hotel.

Length: Half day, 10 km.
Difficulty: Easy
Altitude:  2460 m.a.s.l.

Head out from the hotel riding 500 meters, to the foot of the Quitor Pukara, where we will cross the San Pedro River, to enter the Katarpe valley, to the church 7 km away.

Length: Half day. 15 km.
Difficulty: Easy
Altitude:  2460 m.a.s.l

Heading out from the Alto Atacama Hotel, we cross the Quitor Ayllu, passing by the town of San Pedro de Atacama, the Conde Duque Ayllu, continuing through Yaye and Solcor to the Solor Ayllu, and then to the Poconche Ayllu, taking the detour on a dirt road that takes us to the Cejar Lagoon (1 hour approximately) and returning to the Alto Atacama Hotel.

Length: Half day 21.6 km.
Difficulty: Medium
Altitude:  2410 m.a.s.l.       
Required acclimatization: Not required

Note: if you want to swim in the lagoon, we advise that you take waterproof sandals as the ground is very hard and jagged in places.

Head out from Alto Atacama Lodge to the Katarpe Valley. We take the detour towards the old tunnel, where we will climb until reaching the base of the ridge.  First point of interest.  Here we begin a descent that takes us to the Coca Rock, second point of interest.  We continue the descent to the Llano de la Paciencia, where we connect with the road that takes us back to San Pedro de Atacama through the Mars Valley.  We will come down the dunes while observing the geological formations.  Return to the Lodge via an interior road of the Quitor Ayllu.

Length: Half day, 29 km.
Difficulty: Hard
Altitude:  2600 m.a.s.l.       
Required acclimatization: Yes, two nights in San Pedro.

We pedal out of the hotel at an altitude of 2470 m.a.s.l. heading south east, to cross the San Pedro River after 500 meters and continue up through the Quitor valley, observing foxtails, breas, carob trees, and chañares, among other flora.

At km 6, we take an old road at the fork that used to connect San Pedro de Atacama with Calama, with a strong grade for 2.5 km until reaching an old tunnel dating back to 1930.  Inside, there is landslide material that does not allow motor vehicles to cross.  It is, nevertheless, completely safe to ride through it.

After crossing the tunnel and a well deserved rest stop, we continue our way down through the formations left by water that once flowed down the soft slope of the western face of the Cordillera de la Sal range, opposite the Llano de la Paciencia, until we reach the "Coca Rock" (where we observe that this great rock has small cavities where the ancient shepherds placed the coca leaves they chewed onto the rock).  We continue pedaling south until we reach the current Calama-San Pedro Highway.

Up to here, the route is the same as on the Coca Rock excursion, except that now, instead of taking the direction of San Pedro de Atacama, we cross the highway through the Llano de la Paciencia to the western entrance of the Valley of the Moon, so that we then cross the Cordillera de la Sal range, heading east, passing the Tres Marías (wind carved rock formation, named by Father Gustavo Le Paige), the central crater of the Valley of the Moon, and the great dune.

We continue our route across the vichufita (compacted salt and mineral) road to the international highway, and arrive in San Pedro de Atacama after riding these 38 exhausting kilometres.

Length: Half day. 43 km.
Difficulty: Hard
Altitude:  2470 - 2750 m.a.s.l.       
Required acclimatization: Yes, two days in San Pedro

We leave the Alto Atacama Hotel early, with the bikes loaded onto the van, while we drink water constantly. Drive to the base of the Sairecabur volcano, where we will see an old sulphur mine.  We do a final check on our GIANT bicycles, before we go downhill on the Devils Hill to the Puritama hot springs.

Length: 4 hours, 44 km.
Difficulty: Hard. Experts only
Average altitude: Between 2470 to 3800 m.a.s.l.