Laguna Cejar

You step into the water and your body lifts. There is no swimming at Laguna Cejar — the salt concentration is so extreme that you float horizontally without effort, legs rising, arms drifting, the Andes reflected on a surface that feels more like mercury than water. Chilean, Andean, and James's flamingos wade at the lagoon's edges while the snowcapped cone of Licancábur volcano colours the horizon. The salt crust crunches like broken porcelain underfoot.

Laguna Cejar sits within the Salar de Atacama in Chile's Antofagasta Region, fed by underground channels that give it a salinity 30 times higher than seawater. Despite sitting at 2,300 metres in one of the driest places on Earth, the water reaches 20°C at midday — warm enough to float comfortably without a wetsuit. All three South American flamingo species are visible simultaneously from the lagoon's south bank, a convergence that occurs at very few sites on the continent. The lagoon is part of the broader Atacama salt flat ecosystem, the largest lithium deposit on Earth, where turquoise pools dot a white crust that extends to the horizon. Sunset visits transform the experience — the Andes shift through amber, rose, and violet while the water mirrors every colour change.