Salinas lake (saltflat)
This tour is highly requested by domestic and foreign tourists who visit Arequipa, unfortunately there is a big problem of disinformation. Many people confuse the Salinas Lagoon with the Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve; this situation we have seen many times with some of our customers, who were looking for this tour in other companies and were surprised to see that many companies do not organize this trip and others offered to visit the National Reserve of Salinas and Aguada Blanca, by north side, which is where is the road that goes to the Colca Canyon (Chivay).
The difference is very simple, the Salinas Lake is a touristic attraction located into the National Reserve of Salinas and Aguada Blanca, a very important fact to clarify is that the Lagoon of Salinas is located in the south side of the National Park Salinas and Aguada Blanca, and we take a dirt road in order to visit it, which is not the road through which goes to Chivay (Colca Canyon) when we go to Colca canyon, we go by the north side on a paved road. Then, if you do the Salinas tour, you will visit the Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve as well, but on the south side, behind the Picchu Picchu volcano, and we will not take the road that goes on the north side that is behind the Chachani Volcano, after this explanation for the travelers who want to do the tour to Salinas, let's begin the description of our itinerary:
Laguna de Salinas is located at 4300 meters (14107 feet) above sea level, Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve is 2 hours from Arequipa city, that's why we recommend departing at 7:30 am in order to arrive earlier, and spend there with more light hours; but the departure time is flexible upon request.
On the way, we pass through the village of Chiguata, where we will observe pre Inca terraces, which are still worked for many crops as quinoa, alfalfa, corn, potatoes, carrots, broad beans, and also stands out in this town, the colonial church of the Espiritu Santo, made out of ashlar, we continue our trip into the National Reserve, over there we will see the only forest Queñuas of Arequipa.
As soon we get to the lake, we will have a spectacular landscape, here Nature offers us a wonderful gift, Salinas lake is surrounded by volcanoes; it is possible to see the most active volcano of Peru, the Ubinas volcano, and the backside of Misti, Chachani and PicchuPicchu volcanoes.
Also, here we can observe Andean rabbits, Andean deer, birds and south American camelids such as vicuña, llama and alpaca.
Salinas lake is also the natural habitat of other sorts of Andean birds like guallatas, (Andean goose), crested ducks (lophonetta specularioides), yanavico (plegadis ridgway), giant coot – ajoya (Fulica gigantea), Andean gull - kiulla (larus serranus).
Thousands of flamingos are observed at Salinas, it is possible to see three species, one is permanent and the other two migratory, those arrive between December and March, in Salinas we'll observe:
Borate extraction and artisanal production of salt is appreciated. After the rain season (December to March), the salty flat becomes into a lake.
We'll walk in the salt flats, it looks like a land of another world, for sure it will be an unique experience, in a quiet and natural location.
Afterwards we will get to a hot spring, located near the lake, water level is not too deep, but we can rest next to the springs, and have lunch outdoors with a lovely view of Salinas. We'll be back in Arequipa around 5:00 pm.
The return can be done with mountain bikes, 90 % of the time downhill by bike , transportation accompanies us all the time, which gives us backup in case of any eventuality. Please check our Arequipa biking tours.
