From San Pedro, I joined a number of organized tours in the area.
1/ Visiting some lagunas in the nearby salar (salt falt)
There is a widespread conflict of interest between the local population having scarce and limited water supply and the multinationals wanting to exploit lithium locaed in the Atacama salt flat.
NB - Extracting lithium requires a lot of water : Each tonne of lithium requires around 2 million litres of water to be evaporated, resulting in enormous quantities of water being lost every year and putting underground freshwater reserves in danger of salinisation by getting in contact with brine.
For more information on extracting lithium => Read this article
REUTERS - Santiago, Jan 10, 2024 - A protest by several hundred people in northern Chile on Wednesday blocked access to the Atacama salt flat, the world's largest lithium deposit, where domestic producer SQM (SQMA.SN) and U.S. firm Albemarle (ALB.N) extract the metal.
The protest by indigenous Toconao community underscores a serious challenge to a plan by Chile, the No. 2 lithium producer, to impose more state control over the metal needed for batteries used to power the world's growing electric vehicle fleet.
2/ Early wake-up to drive to the geysers
After an early start from San Pedro (at 04h00!) we reach the El Tatio geothermal geysers field, located 90km North of San Pedro de Atacama at an altitude of 4,320m above sea level, it's -10° C when we get there!
3/ Lagunas and volcanos at high elevation (above 4'000 meters ASL), North-West of San Pedro
