Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve – Potosi Region

The Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve in southwestern Bolivia is the country’s most visited protected area. Located at an altitude between 4,200 m (13,800 ft) and 5,400 m (17,700 ft). It extends over an area of 714,745 hectares (1,766,170 acres) and encompasses glacial salt lakes stained bright red or emerald green by microorganisms or mineral deposits. It beckons with its snowcapped volcanic peaks, frozen, high-altitude deserts, and strange rock formations similar to those found in Dalí paintings.

Created primarily for the protection of birds that inhabit its different lagoons, it protects part of the Central Andean dry puna (oligothermic) ecoregion. Its major attractions are erupting volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, lakes, fumaroles, mountains and its three endemic species of flamingos.