🇧🇴 Bolivia · Altiplano and the Andes
Laguna Verde is one of the great finales of the Salar de Uyuni tour: an emerald-to-turquoise lagoon lying at the southern tip of the Bolivian altiplano, almost on the Chilean border, presided over by the near-perfect cone of the Licancabur volcano. Its unreal green water, the volcano's reflection and the desert around it make up one of the most photographed landscapes in Bolivia.
The color doesn't come from algae but from minerals: the very high concentration of arsenic, magnesium and carbonates dissolved in the water gives it that green, which deepens when the midday wind stirs the lagoon and lifts the sediment. Early in the morning, by contrast, it tends to look still and dull. Beside it, Laguna Blanca, whitish from borax, completes the pair.
This guide covers the practical side of visiting Laguna Verde: that you almost always see it on the salt flat tour out of Uyuni or Tupiza, what to keep in mind about the altitude and the extreme wind on the border, when the color looks best, and how to arrange things if you plan to cross into Chile at the Hito Cajón pass toward San Pedro de Atacama. It's a high-altitude closing act for one of the most spectacular circuits on the continent.
Laguna Verde lies in the Sud Lípez region, crossed since pre-Hispanic times by camelid-herding peoples and by llama caravans moving between the altiplano and the Atacama Desert. The name is descriptive: 'green' for the emerald tone of its water, which science attributes to the high concentration of minerals such as arsenic, magnesium and carbonates. The lagoon is dominated by the Licancabur volcano (5,916 m), a sacred mountain for Andean peoples, on whose summit traces of Inca-era high-altitude rituals have been found. Laguna Verde came under protection inside the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, created by decree in 1973 and named after the Bolivian hero Eduardo Avaroa, killed in the War of the Pacific. Its position, almost on the Chilean border and close to the Hito Cajón pass, has made it a key link between the salt flat circuit and San Pedro de Atacama. It's one of the most visited spots on Bolivia's southern altiplano. The full history of the region and its geology is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The department of silver and of the salt flats: home of the Cerro Rico that financed the Spanish Empire and of the Casa de la Moneda, of the Salar de Uyuni —the largest salt desert in the world and one of the great lithium reserves— and of the colored lagoons of the Eduardo Avaroa Reserve, on the highest and most desolate altiplano in the country, cradle of the hero Eduardo Avaroa.
Read the history of Potosí →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
In the last corner of Bolivia, where the map runs out against the Chilean border, there's a lagoon that changes color with the wind: in the morning it's a dull mirror, and toward midday, when the desert air picks up, it flares into an emerald green that doesn't look of this world. This is Laguna Verde, at the far south of Sud Lípez province, department of Potosí, at around 4,300-4,400 meters, deep in the Andean altiplano, in a sector that already belongs to the great desert shared by Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, an extension of the arid Atacama.
It's a salt lagoon, endorheic (with no outlet to the sea), fed by springs and meltwater and drained only by evaporation, which concentrates the minerals in its water heavily. Alongside it sits neighboring Laguna Blanca, separated by a narrow isthmus, and both lie at the foot of the Licancabur volcano, whose near-perfect cone dominates the whole landscape.
The setting is one of the most extreme on earth: thin air from the altitude, near-total dryness, ferocious solar radiation by day, sub-zero temperatures at night and a wind that on the border can be relentless. That wind is precisely the key to the phenomenon the lagoon is famous for: its shifting green color.
Unlike nearby Laguna Colorada, whose red comes from microalgae, the green-turquoise of Laguna Verde has a mineral origin. Sources attribute it to the high concentration of minerals dissolved in the water, especially arsenic, magnesium and calcium carbonates, which give it that characteristic emerald tone. It is, to a large extent, pure altiplano chemistry.
One fascinating trait is that the color isn't constant: it depends on the wind. When the wind blows hard, as it usually does toward midday in this exposed spot, it stirs the shallow water and lifts sediment off the bottom, and the green turns intense and vivid. Early in the morning, with the lagoon calm, the color usually looks duller and flatter. That's why the hour of your visit makes all the difference in what you see.
That same mineral concentration, arsenic above all, makes the water toxic and unfit for contact. It's a reminder that the beauty of the southern altiplano coexists with extreme chemistry, the product of the region's intense volcanism.
Behind Laguna Verde rises the Licancabur volcano, a 5,916-meter stratovolcano with an almost perfect conical shape that marks the border between Bolivia and Chile. Its symmetrical silhouette reflected in the green water is the classic image of the place and one of the icons of the southern altiplano.
Licancabur carries deep cultural meaning. It was a sacred mountain for Andean peoples, and its name comes from Indigenous languages of the region. On its summit, inside the crater, lies one of the highest lakes in the world, and there, as well as on its slopes, archaeologists have found traces of Inca-era high-altitude rituals: shrines, remains and offerings showing that the mountain was an important ceremonial site within the Andean worldview, in which the great peaks (the apus or achachilas) are protective deities.
Today the volcano draws mountaineering ascents, punishing because of the altitude and generally launched from the Chilean side. But for the vast majority of visitors to Laguna Verde, Licancabur is above all the majestic guardian that completes one of the most beautiful landscapes in Bolivia.
The region around Laguna Verde has been crossed since pre-Hispanic times by camelid-herding peoples and by llama caravans moving between the altiplano and the oases of the Atacama Desert and the Pacific coast. The lagoons, the bofedal wetlands and the passes between volcanoes were known waypoints on those routes; the Laguna Verde sector itself, close to Licancabur and to the passes toward present-day Chile, was part of that landscape of exchange.
The region's modern history is shaped by geopolitics. This is a triple-border area (Bolivia, Chile and, nearby, Argentina) largely defined after the War of the Pacific (1879-1884), in which Bolivia lost its sovereign access to the sea to Chile. Laguna Verde's proximity to that border is no small detail: the very reserve that protects it is named after Eduardo Avaroa, the Bolivian hero killed in that war.
Today that border position gives Laguna Verde a key logistical role: the nearby Hito Cajón pass connects the Salar de Uyuni circuit with San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile, making the lagoon one of the main entry or exit gates to Bolivia's southern altiplano for travelers combining the two countries.
Laguna Verde came under protection with the creation, by decree in 1973, of the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, which covers around 714,000 hectares of Bolivia's southern altiplano and whose central aims are conserving high-Andean flamingos, vicuñas and the whole set of high-altitude ecosystems, including its colored lagoons, geysers and volcanoes.
The reserve is named after Eduardo Avaroa (or Abaroa), the Bolivian hero killed at the battle of Topáter in 1879, during the War of the Pacific. The fact that the reserve protecting Laguna Verde, sitting right on the Chilean border, carries the name of a hero of that war gives it a particular symbolic weight.
Management is in the hands of SERNAP (Bolivia's National Protected Areas Service), together with local communities. Inside the reserve, Laguna Verde and neighboring Laguna Blanca form part of a highly valuable system of high-altitude wetlands, and the surrounding area is home to wildlife such as flamingos, vicuñas and viscachas. The protection aims to preserve this fragile ecosystem against the pressure of tourism and resource extraction.
Today Laguna Verde is one of the most visited and most photographed points on the Salar de Uyuni tourist circuit, and it's usually the grand finale (or the opening, for those entering from Chile). Its emerald tone at the foot of Licancabur closes out a three-day route that takes in the largest salt flat on the planet, the colored lagoons, the geysers and the deserts of the southern altiplano.
Its border location has also made it one of the main links between Bolivia and Chile for travelers: the nearby Hito Cajón pass lets you continue to San Pedro de Atacama without retracing your steps, or start the circuit from the Chilean side. That logistical role makes it a fixture on the big itineraries of the Andean region.
Like the whole ecosystem of the reserve, Laguna Verde is as extraordinary as it is fragile. Growing visitor numbers, waste management in an area with no infrastructure and the pressures on the resources of the southern altiplano all demand a responsible attitude. For the traveler that means visiting with respect: don't get into its toxic water, don't leave rubbish, follow your guide's instructions and take away nothing but photographs of one of the most beautiful landscapes in Bolivia.