While the sites are nowhere as impressive as their counterparts in Peru and Bolivia, I did want to give a quick review to some of the Chilean elements to this complicated site.

To revisit the question at the core of Nan’s review (Is it the roads the Incas built to connect all parts of their empire? Or does it refer to the sites the roads connect?), I feel like within Chile at least, the answer is very much the latter. Chile has inscribed long portions of the road, but very almost no Incan associated sites. The roads themselves are often barely little more smudged trails through the desert, but it's still impressive how much has survived. In some places, local indigenous communities maintain the trail in a good condition.

During our Dec 2018 trip, we visited three components - a long stretch that runs for about 25km to the south of San Pedro de Atacama, a small component just north of San Pedro, and another longer stretch running north from the village of Lasana. Of the three, the most ‘impressive’ was the first, with the trail clearly visible through the desert. The setting, with the Andes to one side and Salar de Atacama to the other makes for a quite an experience. It also has the added bonus of being the point where the trail crosses the Tropic of Capricorn.

The other sites offered little in and of themselves, though Lasana is home to a rather impressive Pukarả, one of the small local forts of the region that predated the Incans. Either way, they make an interesting diversion if you happen to be in the Atacama area. None of the sites we visited are particularly difficult to visit if you are renting a car.