The ancestral heritage of northern Chile

The native peoples of northern Chile are a true testament to the human ability to adapt to any environment. Living more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) above sea level on the altiplano (high plateau) or along the edge of the driest desert in the world, these groups have survived and reached modern times as part of the enormous range of beauty and diversity that Chile has to offer.
Hiking through the impressive landscape of northern Chile is an experience that everyone should have at least once. It's even more impressive when we consider that people have lived in these remote and inhospitable places for centuries and we have just recently entered into contact with them: people with sun-darkened skin and used to the silence of the mountains and desert. These are the Aymaras and Atacameñans, extraordinary people who live in the most incredible places.

Strictly speaking, the Aymaras are a community that conserves its language once the only one spoken in the entire altiplano area. The many groups included under the umbrella of the Aymara name are dispersed throughout Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, where they number approximately 48,000 people. They are primarily animal herders and practice simple agriculture using ancestral techniques. Their small villages have some of the oldest and most beautiful churches of Chile's extreme north, and their fiestas are a colorful contrast to their normally sober way of life.

The Atacameñans are a much smaller group of nearly 3,000 people who have already lost their original language called kunza. With their alpacas, llamas, and terraced agriculture, they live in small oases in the Andean foothills and along the outskirts of San Pedro de Atacama, where much of the knowledge of these people is concentrated. Discoveries made by Jesuit priest Gustave Le Paige allowed the creation of a museum that has earned San Pedro fame and vitality. Other Atacameñan settlements, now long-abandoned, are visible in the pukarás, military-style stone fortifications found throughout northern and central Chile.

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