Lauca National Park

Lauca sits on the Chilean altiplano near the Bolivian border, almost all of it above four thousand metres, and its centrepiece is Lake Chungará, a sheet of intensely blue water at around 4,500 metres that ranks among the highest lakes on earth, with the perfect white cone of Parinacota and its neighbour Pomerape rising behind it. The air is thin, dry and startlingly clear, and the light on the volcanoes at dawn is extraordinary. Vicuñas, the wild relatives of the alpaca, graze the tussock grass in numbers, along with viscachas, flamingos on the shallow lagoons and the occasional Andean fox. Aymara villages with small whitewashed churches sit along the road, notably Parinacota with its eighteenth-century church, and llama herding continues much as it always has. The altitude is the whole challenge and the whole point.

History

The area was first protected in 1965 as a forest reserve and became a national park in 1970; in 1981 it joined UNESCO's world network of biosphere reserves, and together with the Las Vicuñas National Reserve and the Salar de Surire it now forms the Lauca Biosphere Reserve. The park covers 1,379 square kilometres of altiplano and volcanoes and borders Bolivia's Sajama National Park (Spanish Wikipedia, Parque nacional Lauca; Wikipedia, Lauca National Park).

What you'll find

• Lake Chungará - the deep blue lake below Parinacota volcano, among the world's highest.
• Parinacota and Pomerape - the twin volcanic cones on the border.
• Vicuñas and flamingos - wildlife on the altiplano grass and lagoons.
• Parinacota village - the Aymara hamlet and its old whitewashed church.

When to go

April to November is the dry season and the most reliable for the road; the altiplano winter, roughly January to March, brings afternoon storms known as the Bolivian winter. Nights are freezing year-round. Spend at least a night in Putre at around 3,500 metres before going higher.

What to expect

The altitude is genuinely dangerous if rushed: driving straight up from sea level at Arica to 4,500 metres in a morning makes people seriously ill, and the standard advice to overnight in Putre first should be followed rather than treated as optional. There are almost no facilities in the park, it is bitterly cold at night, and the nearest fuel and food are in Putre. Day tours from Arica do exactly the rushed ascent that causes trouble.

Nearby

Putre is the base village; the Salar de Surire and Isluga lie further south along the altiplano.

Key facts