Valleys at Sunset

Sunset in Valle de la Luna, in La Paz, does not change the landscape: it changes the light. Low, warmer by the minute, until the spires are lit on one side and in shadow on the other. In late-afternoon light the sun stops falling from above and starts coming in sideways, and everything that was flat at midday fills with relief: every ridge throws its own long shadow. The colours move throughout the whole visit. What is beige at four turns gold, then amber, then a deep orange, and the shadows between the shapes go from grey to violet. It does not happen in one go, it is continuous: look at the same pinnacles twenty minutes apart and they are already different pinnacles.

From Valle de la Luna you head over to Valle de las Ánimas, where the Alaxpacha viewpoint is, and you make the climb on foot in that same state. It is not long, but it is uphill and above 3,600 metres, so you arrive breathing hard with your cheeks flushed, and with the sun still above the ridgeline of the cordillera. The viewpoint’s name is not decoration: in Aymara, alaxpacha is the world above, the plane of light, where the deities and the dead live, represented by the condor. Below it comes akapacha, the world we walk on; lower still, manqhapacha, the world of darkness. You climb on foot to a place named after the sky, and you get there exactly as the sky goes to work. At the top everything opens: the valley below, the city to one side and Illimani filling the whole background.

And then it happens. The sun drops behind the cordillera and within a couple of minutes the air changes temperature. You feel it first on the backs of your hands, then on the back of your neck. The day is over. But look at Illimani, because Illimani does not know it yet: for a few more minutes it goes on receiving a light that has already left you, and its snow turns from white to pink, from pink to orange, and only then to blue. At 6,438 metres, the highest in the Cordillera Real, it is the last thing to go out. You are standing in shadow, cold, watching a mountain that is still in daylight. That is what you come here to see, and it is why this outing runs in the afternoon and not in the morning.

Then there is the time at the top. The toast, something hot or something cold between your hands, the sky going out in layers and the first lights of La Paz coming on below, one by one, until the whole hollow is picked out in orange. By then the cold does not arrive: it drops. And that is no accident, it is part of the moment — which is why the glass in your hands up there needs no explaining. At this time of year the altiplano dries out and the sky clears, and the light lasts to the end without a single cloud to cut it. It is the only hour of the day when this place looks like this, and it lasts as long as it lasts. You come down by minibus. Nobody walks at night.

Before you book: 24 h in La Paz beforehand is required. Available from April to October; during the rainy season (November to March) the tour is suspended for safety reasons. The climb to the viewpoint is on foot and the way down is by minibus — all that is left on foot is a short stretch to the vehicle, with a head torch provided. After sunset the cold drops fast, and there are blankets on board. The drinks service includes an alcohol-free option; the driver does not drink alcohol, and moderation is advised given the altitude.

Rates per person — from USD 65.

Would you rather see it by day, with more walking and the afternoon free? See Moon Valley