Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve

In Bolivia’s extreme southwestern corner, where the borders of Chile and Argentina converge, lies a protected wilderness so otherworldly that visitors often describe it as stepping onto another planet. The Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve—established in 1973 and named after a hero of Bolivia’s War of the Pacific—encompasses 714,745 hectares of high-altitude desert, volcanic peaks, and mineral-stained lagoons at elevations between 4,200 and 5,400 meters. This is the Altiplano at its most dramatic: a cold, wind-swept expanse where temperatures swing from minus 20°C to plus 30°C and rainfall barely reaches 76 millimeters annually.

The reserve’s centerpiece is Laguna Colorada, a shallow salt lake that glows crimson from the pigmentation of algae and rich mineral sediments. Spanning 60 square kilometers but rarely more than 80 centimeters deep, its blood-red waters are punctuated by white islands of borax that create an almost impossible contrast. In 1990, the lake was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance—recognition of its role as one of Earth’s most critical flamingo habitats. Here, three of the world’s six flamingo species gather in colonies numbering tens of thousands, their pink forms mirrored in waters that seem borrowed from a fever dream.