Hiking In Tupiza: Puerta Del Diablo and Other Adventures
Date of Entry: November 19th 2015
Date of Writing: November 28th 2015
Tupiza is more or less the wild and west, and even at almost 3000 meters above se level, like any desert, it gets damn hot. I learned my lesson yesterday and rise at around 6 am today still feeling a little burned. Yesterday I got lost and missed my targets ending up at the very impressive Canon Del Duende, but today I’m determined to find my way to Puerta del Diablo (Devil’s Door) Valle de los Machos (Male or Penis Valley) and Canyon Del Inca.
I’ve got a new map and new instructions from the people at my hostel/tourist agency and so by 6:30 I’m out the door heading up through town walking to the end of calle chuquisaca, making a short left and then my first right onto Calle Pagador and following it up out of the city and through the hills just outside them. (If you need instructions Torre Tours or Tupiza Tours will be happy to hook you up with a map and directions, just go in and ask)
As I wind down out of the hills following the road and walking past a small town and up through another little group of hills rounding over to the right and eventually coming to a big dried up stream-bed crossing the road. this is the path to take, and from where you turn off the main road to the right, you should be able to see the dump in the distance ahead of you, on your path if you do not make the right turn. I’m unsure but head right in the dried up river bed and towards the looming multi coloured mountains in the distance. (When in doubt look for horse tracks and follow those as this is the most common tourist day trip from Tupiza.)
Even before 8 am the heat is starting to gather in the air and I’m glad as I grow closer to the distant mountains, knowing that until the sun rises closer to it’s peak in the sky, they will provide some shade for me to hide in when I need to. As I draw closer to the mountains I catch sight of the distant vultures circling and hope I won’t be a meal for them later today, I’ve got 4 litres of water with me, so I should manage to live through the day.
As I get further and further from town a I see more and more cactuses, tall and impressive, some of them even flowering in brilliant bursts of white flowers, unlike any cactus flower I’ve ever seen before.
Just as I’m starting to feel like I must have taken a wrong turn I see a huge rock formation up ahead that looks like it could be Puerta del Diablo, the first place on the docket. I head over towards it watching more vultures and something that looks almost big enough to be a condor coast up and over the mountains harnessing the thermals and quickly becoming just dark specs against the blue of the sky. As I approach the big rock shelf to my left I notice another one up ahead on the right and divert my course, guessing that these two huge plates of rock with a narrow opening between them is actually Puerta del Diablo. Soon enough the sign proves me right.
After marvelling at the two isolated towers of surprisingly thin rock for a while I head to the shade of the original formation I’d seen and mistaken for the Devil’s Door and relax a bit there, listening to music for 15 minutes or so watching more vultures climb higher and higher in the sky. Eventually I climb up and leave she shelter of the ever shrinking shadow behind, continuing to fallen the dried up river bed deeper into the impressive mountains.
As I round a corner and bear right,following the main road and not the left branching path I come to a collection of tours of red rock, thick at the base growing more and more narrow until there is a slight bulge at the top of most of them. I’ve reached the Canyon of Penises and there’s not a doubt left in my mind about that one. The phallic resemblance isn’t as pronounced as it could be but it is hard to ignore and a very strange and unique place, the collection of towers huddled together in clusters and dominating the natural sky line.
As I walk past the main cluster I see a smaller stream bed leading up towards another cluster of dicks, honestly I never thought I’d hurry up a hill to get to them, but hey we all change right? Sorry, bad joke. I take shelter in the shade of a huge rock formation and admire the strange formations, delighting in being utterly alone in the middle of this spectacular desert.
Eventually I head back to the main road and continue out of Penis Valley (because why would we use the other name: Male Valley) and walk the roughly two kilometres to the beginning of Canyon Del Inca where I again find some shade and collapse the heat now almost in full effect as the sun is just an hour or so from it’s peak.
As I lie there two people appear in the mouth of the Canyon, climbing quickly past me and waving hello. I judge from the boots they are wearing that they must have come by horse and eventually stagger up and back out into the heat, finding one of the three horses waiting in the mouth of a canyon and posing for some pictures.
I decide to wait until the couple has come back before continuing on, and use that time to relax a bit more before snapping a few more photos of the horses, mounted this time, as the two gringo’s and their local guide head back the way they’ve come.
Once they are gone and I’m alone again I head up into the canyon, quickly scrambling over rocks into the ever narrowing gorge. Its full of amazing scenery and an ever shrinking patch of blue sky above, and one of the saddest sights know to man, several dried up waterfalls.
Eventually the path becomes too rugged for me alone, not wanting to fall and become vulture food, so I head back the way I’ve come and wander back out of Canyon del Inca and past the phallic towers of Valle del Machos. There at the aforementioned fork in the road, I decide that, despite being drenched in sweat and quite exhausted, I’m not quite done with these amazing landscapes.
I’ll be moving on to Tarija tomorrow and I don’t want to miss anything out of laziness so this time I take a right, following the fork in the road to the left I passed on my way here, heading up towards Fox Canyon, with no idea what’s there besides it’s name on the map.
The path quickly becomes a gentle uphill, then a more significant one and soon Im sweating and mildly out of breath, still even as noon approaches I manage to find some shade here and there to rest and recover from the heat, and the scenery all around me is quite impressive.
As I climb up from one of my longer bests and round a corner the view suddenly gets more dramatic, a row of towering sharp and narrow pillars of rock marking the end of the canyon and taking me straight out of this world and into thoughts of fantastical realms.
Exhausted from the heat and the uphill I climb into the shade under a massive bolder and relax for a good while, snapping some photos, and enjoying the incredible silence of the desert. This walk has been well worth the effort, every part of it.
As I get up I find that my phone has disappeared from my pocket and weigh my options, eventually deciding to carry on as far as I can and worry about looking for it on my way back, since I know there’s only been about a 10 minute walking window where it could have fallen. The distant spires are just too entrancing to pass up.
I walk on, climbing more than walking for the last few minutes, before the path disappears, and I am forced to turned back quite annoyed that I couldn’t make it to the spires without more significant climbing than I am willing to do alone.
The way down is a lot easier than the way up, the downwards slope allowing me to let my momentum carry me until I reach my last resting place, where I slow down having to search for my phone (I say phone but it’s a cheap smartphone I bought in chile which I use for music since losing my i-pod) which I’m lucky to find sitting in the middle of the stream bed face down, slowly cooking in the sun but otherwise entirely unscathed.
Eventually I pause to take a paint me jack photo in these ludicrous landscapes at the request of a friend, if you can believe it. It’s the first time I’ve done it with a photo timer and the rock ground is scaldingly hot to my skin but I tough it out. Anything for great art.
I hurry back down out of the canyon and join the main riverbed again, pausing for relief from heat here and there and taking lots more photos as I walk back towards town through these stunning and wild west like landscapes which surround me.
I’m exhausted, it’s very hot, and I need a shower and some food. By the time I make it back to town it’s almost 3 pm again, and I’m thrilled to shower and head to Churasqueria Moises for some delicious barbecued beef before heading to the bus station and buying my ticket to Tarija on the only day bus which leaves everyday at 8 am. (50 Bs but you could bargain to 40). I’m sad to be leaving Tupiza but perhaps my path will see me back to visit the salt flats one last time during wet season in January 2016.
