Salinas Grandes

Bring sunglasses for this spectacular salt plain in a remote part of the puna, some 11,000ft (3350m) above sea level. A lake that dried up in the Holocene, this is now a 202-sq-mi (525-sq-km) crust of salt up to 1.6ft (0.5m) thick. On a clear day, the blinding contrast between bright blue sky and the cracked and crusty expanse of white is spellbinding. Over the course of a year, wind strips much of the salt away; it's most spectacular after summer rains replenish it.