- Where
- Eduardo Avaroa reserve, Sud Lípez
Potosí, south-western Bolivia - Coordinates
- 22.1800° S
67.7800° W - Altitude
- About 4,278 m
(Wikipedia) - Area and depth
- About 60 km², under 1 m deep
(Wikipedia) - The colour
- Red sediment and the alga
Dunaliella salina - Status
- Ramsar wetland since 1990
- Getting there
- Multi-day 4×4 tour
from Uyuni or Tupiza - Best visited
- Year-round; coldest May to July
After long days of bouncing across a cold, empty high desert, the truck topped a rise, and below lay water the colour of brick, rimmed with banks of white crust and full of pink birds, each balanced on a leg. The wind went straight through my coat. A snowy volcano watched from behind. I breathed very slowly, partly from the height and partly from the view.
The short answer
Laguna Colorada is a shallow, hypersaline lake on the altiplano of south-western Bolivia, at about 4,278 metres, inside the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve in Sud Lípez province, Potosí. Wikipedia gives its area as about 60 square kilometres and its depth as less than a metre. Its red comes from a combination of red sediments and pigmented algae adapted to salty water, mainly Dunaliella salina, and ranges from soft pink to deep red with the amount of algae, sunlight and temperature; across the surface stand white islands formed of borax. It has been a Ramsar wetland of international importance since 1990, and in 2009 the Ramsar site was enlarged to 14,277 square kilometres as Los Lípez.
Why it's worth knowing
Three flamingos, and a rare one. Wikipedia calls the lake a primary breeding ground for Andean, Chilean and James’s flamingos, with James’s the most abundant. James’s flamingo is named for Harry Berkeley James, a Walsall-born manager of a Chilean saltpetre mine who sponsored the expedition that collected the first specimen, and it was long thought extinct. A paper in The Condor in 1958 describes an expedition led by A. W. Johnson, which left Santiago in January 1957 and found the bird nesting at Laguna Colorada; Wikipedia dates the rediscovery to 1956. The two dates are both given here.
Thin air, little rain. The reserve lies between 4,200 and 5,400 metres, Wikipedia records, with about 76 millimetres of rain a year and an average temperature of 3°C; the coldest months are May, June and July. It covers 714,745 hectares, was created by Supreme Decree on 13 December 1973, and is named after Eduardo Abaroa, a Bolivian hero of the War of the Pacific. About 153,000 people visited in 2018, making it the most visited protected area in Bolivia.
The field notes
What the water is made of
The lake’s main inflow is the Sulor River, Wikipedia records. Its water is rich in salts, particularly sodium chloride, with high levels of borates, sulphates and diatomite, and a pH that ranges from 5.3 to 9.0. The plankton that colours the water also feeds the flamingos and gives them their pink. Around the shore live vicuñas, Andean foxes, the rare Andean mountain cat, and domesticated llamas, which belong to the people of the reserve’s two communities, Quetena Chico and Quetena Grande.
On the circuit
The reserve also holds the geysers, fumaroles and hot springs of Sol de Mañana, the green Laguna Verde and white Laguna Blanca, and Árbol de Piedra, the “stone tree”, a rock about seven metres high cut by wind-blown sand, about 18 kilometres north of Laguna Colorada, Wikipedia records. Its volcanoes along the borders with Chile and Argentina include Licancabur, at 5,920 metres.
White borax banks along the lagoon shore.
Photograph: Christian Mehlführer · Laguna Colorada MC · CC BY 3.0 · cropped
Flamingos feeding across the lagoon in July.
Photograph: DanielGuzmanDuchen · CC BY-SA 4.0
A llama and her cria on the white flats by the red water.
Photograph: kallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0
James's flamingos close up, yellow-and-black bills down.
Photograph: Bob Ramsak · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Spend a few nights high up before you come, sip water all day long, and walk everywhere at half your usual speed.
- Keep well back from the birds along the shore. The shallows are their kitchen and their nursery at once.
- The llamas by the water belong to the families who live up here. Admire them from a distance, and ask a herder’s leave before raising a camera.
- Pack for winter whatever the month, and keep the warmest thing you own for the night at the refuge.
- Name the shade of the water. I tried rust, then brick, then tomato, and ended up with a list that reads like a recipe.
The borax islands. White islands and banks of borax standing in Laguna Colorada’s red water, formed, Wikipedia records, by the accumulation of the mineral, so that the lake shows red and white at once. They are seen from the shore, where the tours stop, and stay where they lie.
Tally, in the marginTo begin with I thought they were ice, it being cold enough, and was well into admiring how long they had lasted when the driver said they would never melt at all. I liked them better for being stubborn.
Getting there
How to get there. On a four-wheel-drive tour. Operators’ listings describe three-day circuits from Uyuni, with a driver, a guide, meals and shared vehicles of six, crossing the salt flat on the first day and reaching the lakes of the reserve on the second, with the second night in a basic refuge at Huayllajara; longer trips start from Tupiza, and some end across the border in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The same listings give the reserve’s entrance fee as 150 bolivianos, paid separately.
When to go. Year-round, by the tours on offer. The coldest months are May to July, Wikipedia records; nights are below freezing for much of the year.
What to arrange ahead. A tour with an operator you have checked, and a few days at altitude beforehand. Warm clothes and a sleeping bag for the refuge, cash for the entrance fee, sun protection, and water.
Safety. The State Department rates Bolivia Level 2, exercise increased caution, for crime, unrest and health; its one do-not-travel area is Chapare Province, in Cochabamba, far to the north-east, and it warns that demonstrations can block roads with little notice (advisory read on 4 October 2026; two readings of the feed that day dated it 18 August 2026 and 28 April 2026). The hazards here are the place’s own: altitude sickness at more than 4,000 metres, cold, and long distances on rough tracks from medical help.
Mark this place
Common questions
Why is Laguna Colorada red?
Wikipedia attributes the colour of Laguna Colorada to a combination of red sediments and pigmented algae adapted to salty water, mainly Dunaliella salina. The red varies from soft pink to deep red with the amount of algae, sunlight and temperature.
How high is Laguna Colorada?
Laguna Colorada lies at about 4,278 metres above sea level, in the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve of south-western Bolivia, a reserve whose altitudes range from 4,200 to 5,400 metres, Wikipedia records.
What flamingos live at Laguna Colorada?
Andean, Chilean and James’s flamingos, with James’s the most numerous, according to Wikipedia. James’s flamingo, long thought extinct, was found nesting at Laguna Colorada by A. W. Johnson’s expedition of January 1957, as reported in The Condor in 1958.
How do you get to Laguna Colorada?
On a four-wheel-drive tour, usually a three-day circuit from Uyuni that reaches Laguna Colorada on the second day, by operators’ accounts, or a longer one from Tupiza. Operators give the Eduardo Avaroa reserve’s entrance fee as 150 bolivianos.
What are the white islands in Laguna Colorada?
They are deposits of borax. Wikipedia records that islands formed by accumulated borax stand white against the red water of Laguna Colorada, whose water is also rich in borates, sulphates and diatomite.
Is Laguna Colorada a protected area?
Yes. Laguna Colorada lies in the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, created on 13 December 1973, and has been a Ramsar wetland of international importance since 1990; in 2009 the Ramsar site was enlarged to 14,277 square kilometres as Los Lípez.
How cold is it at Laguna Colorada?
Very. Wikipedia gives the Eduardo Avaroa reserve, which holds Laguna Colorada, an average temperature of 3°C and about 76 millimetres of rain a year, with the lowest temperatures in May, June and July.
Is Laguna Colorada on the Salar de Uyuni tour?
Yes. Laguna Colorada is on the same four-wheel-drive circuit as the Salar de Uyuni, reached on the second day of a three-day tour from the town of Uyuni, by operators’ accounts, after the salt flat on the first.