A hotel of the Lickan Antay people

In the oasis of Toconao, Atacama Desert, Chile. The first Indigenous community hotel in the country.

A girl from Toconao smiling among the flowers of the oasis

Alabalti

Welcome to Tockolen

A hotel of the Lickan Antay Indigenous Community of Toconao, a hidden gem in the Atacama Desert, where water, volcanoes and the clearest skies on the planet meet the worldview of the Lickan Antay people.

Rooms: 33
Opening: January 2027
Altitude: 2,475 m
From San Pedro: 38 km

Tockolen is not in Toconao.
It is Toconao.

Lickan Antay Community of Toconao

The film · 2:55 · English

An invitation from Toconao

With members of the Lickan Antay Community of Toconao.

Tockolen at sunset, with its lit paths and the desert behind

The hotel

Rest and understand

A place to rest and to understand Lickan Antay culture.

Born in Toconao, where the water guided by the ancestors turned the desert into an oasis. At nightfall, the fire gathers people to talk, listen and give thanks.

Tockolen at night seen from above, lit by fires and lanterns — **At nightfall**The fire gathers us

Inner courtyard with stone walls and a lit path — **The courtyard**Stone, wind and silence

Breakfast tray with bread and coffee facing the desert — **Morning**Breakfast facing the desert

Pool
Spa
Restaurant
Auditorium
Native garden

Rooms

Beneath the guardian hills

9 rooms

Chajnantor

Place of departure

In Kunza, the place from which one sets out. On its plain, at 5,000 m, the world observes the universe.

12 rooms

Kimal

Licancabur’s beloved

The hill of woman and fertility. Each winter solstice, legend says, the volcano’s shadow reaches her.

12 rooms

Poquis

Guardian hill

One of the hills that watch over the village, thanked in every ceremony.

Where we are

In the heart of the Atacama salt flat

Map of Chile with the route from Santiago to Calama, San Pedro de Atacama and Toconao

SantiagotoCalamaFlight · ≈ 1,250 km · ≈ 1 h 45
CalamatoSan PedroRoad · 100 km · ≈ 1 h 15
San PedrotoToconaoRoad · 38 km · ≈ 40 min

A flamingo reflected in Laguna Chaxa at dusk

The land

The treasures of Tockolen

From the salt flat to 5,000 metres, all within reach of the village.

Tockolen is the centre from which the land opens: the salt flat and its lagoons to the west, the Jere ravine and its traces to the east, and the high plateau rising to 5,000 metres.

Map of the territory around Tockolen: Laguna Chaxa, Valle de Jere, Monjes de la Pacana, Chajnantor, Tambillo, Zapar and Bosque Viejo — Map of the territory. Altitudes in metres above sea level.

The Jere valley oasis seen from above — **Valle de Jere**The oasis that waters Toconao

Flamingos in the shallow waters of Laguna Chaxa — **Laguna Chaxa**2,300 m · Flamingos of the salt flat

The Monjes de la Pacana stone pillars in the high plateau — **Monjes de la Pacana**Over 4,000 m

Flamingos in the lagoons of Tambillo seen from above — **Tambillo**High wetlands

Llamas grazing by the water with volcanoes on the horizon — **Llamas**Grazing in the bofedal

Silhouette of Kimal hill against an orange dusk — **Kimal**Dusk over the guardian hill

Aerial view of a ravine crossing the high desert towards the volcanoes

Journey

Five days in Toconao

Atacama from its origin to the stars.

I
Arrival
Welcome in Calama, the Cordillera de la Sal at sunset and a welcome dinner.
II
Water and flamingos
Valle de Jere, its orchards and rock art. Sunset at Laguna Chaxa.
III
From stone to stars
Monjes de la Pacana, with altitude protocol. At night, an astronomy tour in Toconao.
IV
Living culture
Bosque Viejo, the ayllu, a farm in Zapar and sunset at the pucará.
V
Farewell
An unhurried breakfast, words from the community and transfer to Calama.

A suggested journey prepared with the community.

The Milky Way above cacti in the Atacama night

Atacama sky

The same sky, two ways of reading it

The Lickan Antay ancestors read these stars to sow, to find their way and to give thanks. Today ALMA, on the Chajnantor plain, observes the universe from the same sky.

Dancers in colourful traditional costumes during a festivity in Toconao

The community

Toconao, stone and water

A village of liparite stone and spring water, where Lickan Antay culture is alive in its canals, orchards and festivities. The community, constituted in 2006 under Chile’s Indigenous Law 19.253, owns and hosts Tockolen.

Kunza, the ancestral language of the Lickan Antay people.

Contact

Alabalti. Welcome to Toconao

tockolen@catoconao.cl