Piedra del Coyote and Mars Valley

In the afternoon we took a tour that featured beautiful vistas, hiking, climbing down enormous sand dunes, and a nice sunset.

First stop was Piedra del Coyote, which features a rock overhang that looks like it comes from the roadrunner/coyote cartoons. Unfortunately, an earthquake has recently cracked the rock, so you are no longer allowed to walk out on the ledge. But, I thought that the real point of interest was the incredible vistas. From this plateau, you can see at least a dozen peaks in the Andes. Most of these are extinct volcanos, although a few have been active in the last ten years. The nearest peak is Licancabur. The farthest peak that you can see is Llullaillaco (the “ll” is pronounced liked a “j”), which is 143 miles way and the second highest active volcano in the world. Even though it is 143 miles away, it seems much closer, which is due to both the geography (very flat between here and the peak) and the crystal clear air quality.

Second stop was Mars Valley, which is also called Death Valley. This is a valley, which has been caused by erosion. You start at a road beyond the edge of the valley and hike up to the rim. Again, while the distance is relatively trivial, the thin air makes the “hike” a bit of a challenge. (One of our group actually had some altitude sickness, which made me feel lucky to only be suffering from shortness of breath.). Once you get to the top, you hike around the rim and admire the vistas.

As we walked, we also had a chance to see an Apacheta, which is an Incan pile of stones in honor of the Patcha Mama (Mother Earth). These Apachetas marked the Inca trail, which wound from town to town throughout the empire. As a traveler came to a pile, the traveler spit out his chewed coca leaves onto the pile of rocks (some of the Apachetas still have green leaves visible), picked up a stone, circled the pile three times and then laid down the stone. Laying the stone down brought the traveler’s life force to the stone pile.

After walking for about 30 minutes, we climbed over the ledge into an enormous sand dune. According to Dr. Science, the dune slopes down 100 meters, which is the equivalent of a 20 story building. A few hardly souls ran down. The rest of us did a fast walk, which was actually incredibly fun. By the time I hit the bottom, my shoes were filled with sand, and there was an enormous grin on my face.Read more