As volcanoes go, Licancabur, in Chile’s Atacama Desert, is quite young—only tens of thousands of years old. The classically shaped stratovolcano was formed sometime after the Late Glacial Period, and the crater at its summit contains one of the highest-altitude lakes in the world. It’s considered sacred by the Atacameño people, and its name in the local Kunza language translates to “people’s mountain.”
Licancabur looms over the small town of San Pedro de Atacama like a period at the end of every long street. It marks sunrise and sunset, and there’s no better place to admire it from than Tierra Atacama, one of the region’s best-loved hotels, which reopened in April after a $20 million renovation.
