Argentina
Laguna del Diamante
A lagoon at 3,300 metres mirroring a volcanic cone in water too cold to touch.
Laguna del Diamante in Mendoza Province sits at 3,300 metres in a volcanic amphitheatre directly beneath the Maipo volcano, and the lake's extraordinary colour — an electric blue produced by dissolved minerals from the geothermal activity beneath it — makes it look like an artificially coloured film set rather than a natural body of water. The drive from the Mendoza valley climbs 3,000 metres in 90 kilometres through a landscape that passes from vineyard to mountain desert to high Andean plateau to volcanic moonscape without warning. Flamingos feed in the shallows.
Laguna del Diamante is a volcanic crater lake in the Laguna del Diamante Provincial Reserve, formed in the caldera of the Diamante volcano and fed by meltwater from the adjacent Maipo volcano (4,004 metres), which remains volcanically active and contains a summit fumarole field. The lake sits at the southern end of the Tupungato-Maipo volcanic complex, one of the most volcanically active sections of the central Andes, and its distinctive colour results from the high concentrations of arsenic, boron, and sulphur dissolved from the volcanic substrate. The extreme conditions of the lake — high altitude, high UV radiation, extreme temperature variation, and volcanic chemistry — support extremophile microbial communities similar to those proposed as analogues for potential life on other planets. Access is via a 90-kilometre dirt road from San Rafael that is closed by snow between April and November.
Solo
The Laguna del Diamante reserve in the austral summer, with the flamingos feeding in a lake that shouldn't exist at this altitude and the Maipo volcano's fumaroles visible on the far shore, is one of Mendoza Province's least-visited and most extraordinary landscapes. The drive alone, ascending through the full altitudinal range of the Andes, is worth the day.
Friends
A group with high-clearance vehicles, camping gear, and the sense to arrive in December or January can spend two days at the lake — hiking to the volcano's lower slopes, watching the flamingos at dawn, and swimming in the thermal springs at the lake's southern end. The reserve has no facilities; the experience is in exact proportion to the preparation.
- The volcanic cone reflected is Maipo (5,323m) — its silhouette appears inverted in still water on calm mornings.
- The approach road crosses a 4,700m pass that closes with snow from May to October.
- The lagoon sits at 3,300m inside a protected reserve with no permanent structures of any kind.
- Guanacos graze the basalt steppe around the shore and approach within 20 metres of the water's edge.
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