THANK YOU INTERNET!
When departing from the geoglyph El Gigante de Atacama (world’s largest prehistoric representation of a human figure, 86 m in height) a German fellow traveller (in his giant luxury villa on wheels!) recommended us to go to a lagoon in Salar de Surire. Luckily, we could look up this lagoon on internet, as we buy local SIM cards with data plans in almost every country that we visit and we even had reception here in the dessert. When Googling that lagoon some pictures of a deep-red lagoon popped up. After doing some research it appeared to be Laguna Roja which was reasonably close; only a 130 km detour from the Ruta 5 Panamericana and the same 130 km back. Though Salar de Surire looked beautiful, we were much more attracted by Laguna Roja and decided to go there instead. Thank you internet!
AN OASIS UNDERNEATH THE DESERT
Police officers and locals told us that the last 60 km towards Laguna Roja is only accessible by 4×4 and that tours might be available in Camiña. In the hope to find a tour there, we tried our luck and drove 70 km through a beautiful canyon oasis full of pretty farming villages, mainly producing garlic and carrots on their terraces. A great surprise after hundreds of kilometres of dry desert landscapes since departing from the world’s largest open-pit mine (Codelco Norte or Chuquicamata) near Calama, when the road descended to another world underneath the dry dirt.
CARABINEROS IN CAMIÑA
After buying some garlic on the Plaza de Armas square in Camiña, we asked the police where we could arrange a tour. Apparently, tours from Camiña do not exist, but only depart from Iquique, a surf town with the world’s largest urban sand dune, or from Arica (the latter is less common). When we asked the policemen whether they knew anyone with a 4×4, they immediately started searching. The slogan ‘Carabineros De Chile Un Amigo Siempre’ can be taken literally! The gentlemen told us to have an answer in the evening. In the meantime we explored Camiña. On the way to the graveyard overlooking the town we bought five kilos of carrots just pulled from ground for only CLP1,000.
THE MOST DIFFICULT ROADS OFTEN LEAD TO THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DESTINATIONS
At night the police knocked on our door with good news; we could take a private tour with a local man (Evaristo) at 7 a.m. the next morning for CLP50,000 per person.
At 6:30 a.m. Evaristo was already patiently waiting for us. During the three-hour bumpy ride (not big 4×4 rig friendly!) we saw vicuñas, llamas, guanacos, flamingos, and even a few viscachas (looking like an oversized rabbit with a squirrel tail).
DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS WORLD WONDER
Laguna Roja is drop-dead gorgeous and so are Laguna Verde (green), Laguna Amarilla (yellow) and the waterfalls full of minerals.
UNIMAGINABLE PLANET EARTH
It was cold and windy, but nevertheless worth swimming in the blood-red water! A very weird and unique experience. Hard to imagine this is on our Planet Earth. When we stepped into the warm water of Laguna Verde, Evaristo shouted ‘no no peligroso!’ (dangerous), as you might cook yourself is this boiling pool.
TIPS
- Be careful in selecting your clothes, as the red algae are tough to remove from your skin and clothes.
- Note that you must cross a creek by foot to reach the lagoons, so it is wise to bring water shoes.
- As always, make sure you bring extra camera batteries and memory cards, cause you might not be able to stop taking pictures, just like us.
RED LAGOONS
We are shocked that this hidden pearl is hardly advertised. It’s absolutely on top of our list. Another red lagoon, Laguna Colorada in Bolivia, is much more well-known and lots of people take a tour to go there from either San Pedro de Atacama in Chile or from Uyuni or even La Paz in Bolivia. We asked several tourists who went there in June and none of them saw the red colour. It seems you have to be very lucky with the season and weather conditions to see it as on the pictures (which we were, when we visited Laguna Colorada). However, Laguna Roja in northern Chile is always red, locals said. In our opinion, this is something to add to your bucket list!