10 of South America’s Most Beautiful Natural Wonders

Covering over 6.8 million square miles, South America is home to many of the planet’s most jaw-dropping natural attractions. Not sure where to begin? From a massive waterfall that spills into two countries to the world’s largest salt flat and an Insta-famous rainbow mountain, check out 10 of the most beautiful natural wonders in South America.

Perito Moreno Glacier – Argentina

Covering a jaw-dropping 97 square miles, Perito Moreno is one of the only glaciers in the world that is advancing instead of shrinking. That’s certainly good news for the planet, but it’s also great for visitors, who are in for an incredible natural show. As the glacier’s size increases, large cracks slowly form along its edges. Stand in front of Perito Moreno long enough, and you’ll bear witness to piercing cracks and booms of huge chunks of ice calving off the glacier and falling into the frigid waters of Lago Argentino, 200 feet below. 

Located near the town of El Calafate in southern Patagonia’s Los Glaciares National Park, Perito Moreno (named after 19th-century explorer Francisco Moreno) is perhaps the most accessible of the four dozen glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The viewing platform provides a spectacular vantage point from across the lagoon, but guided tours also offer the chance to climb and trek through the glacier’s craggy caves and towering walls of ice.

Salar de Uyuni – Bolivia

The largest salt flat in the world covers more than 4,000 square miles of Bolivia’s windswept western landscape — which, incredibly, is almost the size of the state of Connecticut. Resembling a shattered slab of ice, Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flat) formed when a lake dried up between 10,000 and 25,000 years ago. The Indigenous Aymara peoples have long gathered cooking salt from here, and today, the sprawling natural wonder, located 12,000 feet above sea level, serves as a major source of salt for the entire country. Uyuni also contains vast amounts of untapped lithium beneath the surface, the result of prehistoric volcanic eruptions. 

Salar de Uyuni has become increasingly popular with visitors, too, though it can be challenging to get to. Many of them come to experience the Palacio de Sal (The Salt Palace), the world’s first salt hotel. Located on the edge of the salt flat, the lodging is built entirely of salt. The best time to appreciate the salt flat in all its glory is usually between December and April, the season when Salar de Uyuni collects rainwater to create an astonishing mirrored reflection on its surface. 

Iguazu Falls – Argentina/Brazil

The name “Iguazu” is derived from a Guaraní word meaning “great water,” but even that may be an understatement. Wider than Victoria Falls at 1.7 miles across and 100 feet taller than Niagara at its highest point, Iguazu Falls is considered the world’s largest waterfall system. Made up of more than 275 separate cascades along the Iguazu River, the falls straddle the border between Argentina and Brazil, and both countries have rightfully created national parks around this true natural wonder.

In the midst of the glorious waterfall complex, the memorably named Devil’s Throat stretches over 300 feet wide. Catwalks extend over the Iguazu River, allowing visitors to walk across and peer just over the edge of a precipitous drop more than 260 feet below. The horseshoe-shaped curtain of water is so powerful that it completely obscures the pool below with a thick mist. You can also experience that mist firsthand, as a popular way to visit the falls is to join one of the many boat tours that skirt just below Iguazu’s many impressive cascades.

Laguna Colorada – Bolivia

According to Bolivian lore, Laguna Colorada is stained red from spilled blood of the gods. In actuality, the lake’s crimson hue comes from native algae called Dunaliella salina, but you can’t help but feel a divine presence when gazing out at this 15,000-acre saltwater lake perched 14,000 feet above sea level in the country’s southwestern high plains. 

Laguna Colorada is the largest lake in the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve — so large, that its deposits of white borax marbling its surface are visible from space. Less than three feet deep, the shallow water hosts various flamingo species, including the endangered James flamingo, which is believed to nest here more frequently than anywhere else on Earth. Alpacas, Andean foxes, and high-jumping, chinchilla-like vizcachas round out the lakeside wildlife. 

Laguna Colorada is located a few hours from one of Bolivia’s other star attractions, the aforementioned Salar de Uyuni, and many of the lake’s 30,000 visitors each year arrive via a multi-day Jeep tour that originates in Uyuni.

Torres del Paine National Park – Chile

The crown jewel — and namesake — of this Chilean national park are the three dramatic, craggy granite peaks that stretch up to touch the Patagonian sky. The towers themselves take their name from an Indigenous word for “blue,” referring to the gray-blue hue that the granite takes under a certain light.

The Torres del Paine are also the centerpiece of the park’s “W” Trail — a challenging 46-mile circuit that claims one of the top spots on any serious hiker’s bucket list. The multi-day backpacking trip traverses some of South America’s most stunning scenery, offering sheer granite cliffs, calving icebergs, golden grasslands, and impossibly clear glacial lakes. 

October through April are the most popular months to visit, as summer in the Southern Hemisphere brings warmer temperatures into the high mountains, as well as abundant daylight (up to 17 hours a day). Wildlife lovers will thrill to the sight of majestic condors, along with foxes, huemuls (South Andean deer), pumas, and guanacos, a small, llama-like creature abundant in these landscapes.

Vinicunca Mountain – Peru

High in the Andes (more than 17,000 feet above sea level, in fact) lies Vinicunca, better known as Rainbow Mountain. Largely thanks to Instagram, the multicolored mound southeast of the city of Cusco exploded in popularity in the mid-2010s for its striped shades, which look Photoshopped but are actually the result of oxidized minerals from the surrounding environment. The mountain’s seven layers of color were obscured by snow and glaciers until the past decade, when warming temperatures finally revealed the marbled mineralogy and its stunning hues ranging from gold to maroon to turquoise. 

Now the second-most visited spot in the Cusco region (after Machu Picchu), Vinicunca is a high-altitude challenge to get to, and its brilliant hues are often obscured by inclement weather. It’s recommended to spend at least a few days in Cusco acclimating to the altitude, but the resulting vistas are worth the wait — especially when you come upon a llama posing before the peaks.

Caño Cristales – Colombia

For much of the year, this 62-mile-long river located about 175 miles south of Bogotá wouldn’t be worth going out of your way for. But in-the-know travelers who make the trek between July and November will witness Colombia’s “Liquid Rainbow” — a natural phenomenon found nowhere else on the planet. During these months, the otherwise unassuming river explodes into an array of psychedelic colors, all thanks to a blooming river weed called Macarenia clavigera.

Part of the Sierra de La Macarena National Natural Park — tucked into a stunning mountain range near the Andes — the fast-moving river and its falls have carved pits into the rocks along its bed over time, creating a perfect environment for the Macarenia clavigera to thrive. The plant mostly blooms in deep reds, maroons, and pinks, but where there’s shade over the water, the blooms grow bright green and yellow and sometimes even blue — giving the river its nickname, the “River of Five Colors.” But some onlookers, putting it even more simply, have dubbed it the “most beautiful river on Earth.” 

Chapada Diamantina National Park – Brazil

Spanning over 375,000 acres, Brazil’s Chapada Diamantina National Park is larger than some European countries. The glorious preserve was established in 1985 in the country’s northeast state of Bahia. Though it’s home to Brazil’s highest peak — Pico do Barbado, which soars 6,680 feet above sea level — Chapada Diamantina is more than just mountains. There are dense jungles, dramatic waterfalls, lush valleys, and grass-covered plateaus that host innumerable bird species, jaguars, cougars, as well as giant armadillos and giant anteaters. 

While there is something for all types of outdoors enthusiasts —  mountain climbing, hiking, swimming, snorkeling, and kayaking, for starters — Chapada Diamantina is a particular hotspot for cave diving. The park features a vast network of underground caverns formed over centuries by subterranean rivers and erosion. So famous are these ancient caves and formations that Chapada Diamantina is often referred to as “Brazil’s Lost World.”

One of the most famous caves is the flooded Poco Azul (Blue Well). When explorers dove into the blue-hued space in 1920, they discovered the bones of roughly 40 different animal species, many of which are now extinct. The cache included the remains of a megatherium, an ancient creature roughly the size of an elephant.

Angel Falls – Venezuela

The majestic curtain of white water billowing down Venezuela’s Angel Falls — the world’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall — would certainly be a worthy inspiration for its celestial name. But the waterfall was actually named after an American pilot, Jimmy Angel, who was the first to fly over it and share his discovery with the outside world. In 1935, Angel was scanning the mountains of southern Venezuela for potential sites to mine precious jewels when his plane crashed on a mesa. Fortunately, he survived, only to later spot the falls in the distance. Today, his restored plane resides in Venezuela’s Aeronautics Museum, while a replica overlooks the cascade.  

Angel Falls consists of one dramatic single drop from Auyantepui Mountain to the unspoiled wilderness 3,212 feet below. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly 20 times taller than Niagara Falls. The dense jungle region surrounding the falls is nicknamed the “lost world,” otherwise known as Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Due to its extreme isolation, visitors must take either an airplane tour or a long river journey to witness the falls in person, but it’s hard to argue the payoff isn’t heavenly. 

Valle de la Luna – Chile

Chile’s spectacular Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) was named for its otherworldly barren landscapes which are devoid of trees and plants. Instead, its mineral-tinted peaks and pitted bowls are windswept and encrusted with white traces of parched salt. Visitors make the trip from San Pedro de Atacama (about 9 miles away) not only to hike and admire the valley’s lunarlike landscapes but also to sandboard down its slopes, their whoops bouncing off the desert rocks. By far the most popular time to visit is dusk, when you can watch the reds, pinks, and golds of the wind-whittled geologic formations glow and darken under the setting sun. 

Another unearthly element of the Valley of the Moon (and the greater Atacama Desert) is the typically cloudless sky. A combination of the Andes Mountains blocking any rain that could blow in from the east, and an atmospheric condition caused by super cold Pacific water inhibiting evaporation, means constantly clear skies over the desert. This also accounts for the desert’s popularity as a site for observatories — the world’s highest observatory, the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory, is also located here.