Licancabur

Licancabur is the volcano that closes the eastern horizon of San Pedro de Atacama: a near-perfect cone of 5,916 metres standing exactly on the border between Chile and Bolivia, dark against a sky that is almost always cloudless. Its symmetry is what makes it so compelling. Seen across the salt flats at sunset it turns from brown to copper to violet, and from the Bolivian side it rises straight out of the milky green waters of Laguna Verde, which its lava flows reached some thirteen thousand years ago. It is a young andesitic stratovolcano, built mostly in the late Pleistocene and Holocene, with the lower peak of Juriques beside it to the south-east and Sairecabur to the north.

At the summit lies one of the highest lakes on Earth. The crater, around 400 to 500 metres across, holds a small freshwater pool of roughly 70 by 90 metres, a sheet of water sitting almost six kilometres up, in thin air under an intense high-altitude sun. The top of the mountain is also an archaeological site. Ceremonial platforms and stone enclosures stand on the eastern side of the crater, left by the Inca and the peoples before them, and at the north-eastern foot, around 4,600 metres, a waystation with more than a hundred structures and a plaza marks the route that pilgrims once climbed.

The name comes from Kunza, the old language of the Atacameño people, and is usually glossed as "mountain of the people". In local belief Licancabur is a male mountain, married and bound up with fire, and climbing it was long held to be forbidden. The first documented ascent was made by Severo Titichoca in November 1884, although the ruins on top show that others had reached it much earlier. Today it is a demanding but non-technical climb: a long, steep scree slope, usually about six hours up from a high camp, where the altitude rather than the terrain is the real test.

Getting there

San Pedro de Atacama, the oasis town that serves as a base for the whole region, lies about 32 km west of the volcano and has clear views of it. The nearest city is Calama, about 115 km away, whose El Loa Airport (CJC) is about 111 km from the volcano and is linked by road with San Pedro. Ascents are organised from San Pedro with licensed guides: the usual route crosses into Bolivia at the Hito Cajón border post, enters the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve near Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde, and climbs from a camp at around 4,600 metres. Several nights of acclimatisation in San Pedro beforehand are strongly recommended.