We visited Chaxa Laguna, a RAMSAR wetland, and a nearby town with Gato Andino tours. There’s so much to take in for nature lovers - the hydrology, geology, soil formation and of course flamingos! Our guide Kevin was. very knowledgeable, and we felt safe with driver Marco. Overall a very enjoyable 1/2 day trip.

We had a hire car and did our own morning trip to Laguna Chaxa - beautiful scenery and great to see the flamingos. Drive there is pretty straightforward. I’m pretty sure we had booked out tickets in advance here ( note that several venues in the San Pedro area you need to book in advance so make sure you do your research first. Goingawesomeplaces.com is a fantastic guide for this region with really detailed information on a 5/6 day stay. Loved our morning here and got some great photos - there were probably 30-40 flamingos around when we visited.

We spent nearly 3 hours here watching and photographing the flamingos. There is also a covered terrace area where we had lunch (our own picnic), a big carpark and clean toilets. It said online that you needed to pre-book but this isn’t true as when we turned up we were initially told the price for a ticket. When we showed our online purchased tickets they happily accepted them but it was obvious that we could have turned up ticketless and it would have also been fine. There is a walkway around a flat area (with some signage to explain the local geography) and a viewing area right next to the lake so you can see/ photograph the flamingos up close. We spent a long time trying to get the ‘flying flamingo’ shot and succeeded!!! It’s a great place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Visited partly for flamingoes which were present but under 10. Nevertheless the lack of numbers didn't diminish the outstanding beauty. The white salt base stretching for miles. The mirror finish of the lagoon reflecting the volcanoes in the distance. The blue sky and water and white salt were wonderful. A short 400m flat walk from the car park made for a perfect visit.

Chaxa lake was worth visiting. Only handful of flamingos though; but the landscape more than made for it . Could see Andean Avocet also sweeping the water with the long beak. On the way we visited Toconao which is a cute neat village. It was a private tour and our guide and driver Gustavo was very knowledgable and also an excellent driver. Gustao made our other two tours to Miscanti lake and red stone valley memorable. Any day I will recommend him for tours from SPDA.

This 2300m high lagoon is beautifully situated in the middle of the Atacama Salt flats and encompasses several small lakes. 3 species of flamingo – Chilean, Andean and James thrive here on the abundant brine shrimp in the salty waters which adds to their pinkish hue. This day we saw hundreds of these birds stomping the ground, flitting from side to side or else flying haphazardly. We also saw some sandpipers close to the edge. Drink lots of water to avoid altitude issues and enjoy the spectacle.

This place is absolutely stunning. We self drove and the roads were fine. It took about an hour from San Pedro de Atacama. The reception can be sketchy in parts so screenshot your map directions before you leave (not many turns). Our hotel said we could rock up with cash for tickets. Not the case. you need to pre-book them via the Punto Ticket website. Our low reception didn't allow us to purchase online at the site, so they did let us pay by debit card, but that seemed to be a last resort. We were lucky to see over 100 flamingos (probably 40 of them up close). It's a bit of a photographer's dream. Clean toilets too.