At just under an hour away, the Valley of the Souls and Palca Canyon feel a couple of galaxies away. On this half-day expedition, you’ll escape the city without the traffic and find yourself hiking through canyon lands surrounded by rock and mud spires of all shapes and sizes. You might even feel a few souls brush past you . . . . or was that just a breeze?

Departing La Paz at 9:00am, we head down to the South zone of La Paz to watch how the chaotic center transforms into upscale neighborhoods and from their we go up and out of the city. The weather gets warmer and the air feels cleaner as we reach the rock formations known as the Valley of Souls, our first stop. From here we can admire the Illimani and Mururata mountains before entering the” roadway of the souls.”

After a brief walk around we head to the small farming village of Uni to start a (mostly) downhill walk through the red rock walls of the canyon; as you reach the bottom you can see the dizzying, colorful and severe formations from the riverbed and we’ll stop to have some lunch and continue the walk to the village of Palca where the van will be waiting to return to the city.