Altiplano

Executive summary by darmansjah

A landscape of ice, fire, wind and salt stretching 600 miles (965 km)

BOLIVIA, PERU, AND ARGENTINA rich in silver, salt, and eerie appeal, the altiplano holds a mirror to the sky. The 12,000-foot-high (3,660 m) plateau stretches 600 miles (965 km) through the Andes of Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina, one of Earth’s largest tablelands. The water basins that once covered it have evaporated, but it still holds Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable lake. Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, is in the wetter north. The dry, lonely south includes Salar de Uyuni, an other worldly saltscape; laguna Colorada,  a salty, reddish lake favored by flamingos; and the sulfurous mudpots of Sol de Manana. There’s silver and tin beneath the surface, but few trees survive in the wind-sheared expanses and few crops can be coaxed from the Ground.

BLUE HORIZONS

A herd of domesticated Ilamas stands out in relief on the flat, spring-fed pastures of the Altiplano, Llamas and alpacas are native to the high, windswept region.

FINE FEATHERED FAMILIES

Reflected in Laguna colorada’s quiet waters, puna (or James’s) flamingos tend their less colorful young. The unusual birds are found only on high Andean plateau.