White salt
A crust in the dry season.
Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0
Laguna de Salinas is a shallow salt lake in southern Peru, inside the Salinas y Aguada Blanca National Reserve in the Arequipa region. It sits 4,300 metres above sea level, about 43 km in a straight line from Arequipa's main square. At its fullest the lake spreads over about 6,182 hectares, shrinking in the dry season to a crust of salt. It is fed by rain, meltwater, springs and the wet meadows around it. It was named a Ramsar wetland on 28 October 2003, and in the rainy season it hosts up to 21,000 flamingos of three Andean species. Shallow water and white salt stretch under a clear blue sky, overlooked by mountains and volcanoes in browns and pinks, chief among them Pichu Pichu and Ubinas. Herds of llamas, alpacas and vicuñas graze the golden grass around the shore. The altitude is high, so acclimatise in Arequipa first. The average temperature is 4°C, reaching 20°C by day and dropping below freezing at night, so bring warm layers.
A crust in the dry season.
On golden grass.
Pichu Pichu and Ubinas.
Salinas y Aguada Blanca National Reserve, Arequipa, Peru
In the rainy season, November to March.
Yes, below freezing at night.