Guide to road trip to Lago Chungara

We love road trips and have seen almost every corner of the northern part of Chile and Atacama by car. Locals call us crazy, but a road trip to Lago Chungara is really worth an effort. I am sharing with you all the tips in this guide to have a perfect road trip to Lago Chungara. Keep on reading to learn how to get to the lake with all the best tips and advice.

The distances are huge and according to them if you don’t have at least a week off, your bums should stay in the city or barbecuing at the nearby beach. We strongly disagree. There is no force strong enough to keep us from traveling, discovering new places and spending time away from the city. Of course, there are cities that we love and have great pleasure discovering, but I must be honest with you, there is no much more for us to discover in Antofagasta.

Following that, we drive as far as possible over the weekends, long or short. Sometimes it really feels crazy to drive hundreds of kilometers over two days to reach the desired destination, but this tiredness is always hugely rewarded. Don’t you think?

Use my favourite travel resources to plan your dream trips

Booking.com for searching best prices on accommodation.
Discover Cars is a great website as they search both local and international car hire services, so you can choose the best deal for yourself. Make sure though, that the company has a good reputation and reviews.
Get Your Guide is my place to go for searching and booking tours and excursions, especially when I travel solo.
World Nomads travel insurance. I like them because they have quite extensive coverage of different activities.
Jack’s Flight Club is a service that can save you hundreds of dollars on flights, it works especially well in Europe.
Trivago where you can search and save on hotels.
Go City is a perfect site for booking bucket list experiences and attractions all in one to avoid paying for multiple tickets. Easy and saves money.
Trip Advisor– amazing for good quality recommendations.
Skyscanner is a perfect website for searching flight routes and comparing prices.

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How to get to Lago Chungará

First stop: Arica

We started off in Antofagasta late afternoon heading north to Arica. It takes a good 8 hours of driving to get there. Chile does not have many roads and basically there is only one road that leads those two cities and it’s not a motorway. We got a few 1-hour stops on the way because of the works on the road. After a few hours of driving it already got dark and around 11pm we decided to call it a night and look for an accommodation. The villages are far apart, we knew that before. Also there is no many petrol stations on the way, so whenever we met one, we tanked it full. We stayed over night in a small village Pozo Almonte at the main road near Iquique.

The next morning after a quick and questionable breakfast we took off with an eagerness to see the beautiful landscapes of Lago Chungará that some people told us about. On the way we passed a sign indicating a historical monument of the Pacific War. Knowing how important it was for the Chilean, Bolivian and Peruvian history we drove off the main road. We got to an open-air museum dedicated to the battle of Dolores.

Road from Arica to the lake

Upon our arrival to Arica we asked for tips and directions how to get to the lake. Chileans are not very good at giving advice and details, I wish they would. We discovered that there two roads leading to the lake, a northern and southern that meet at some point later. Following the pointers of Google maps we took the southern one.

After driving for a bit already we saw signs indicating that this road is closed for a few hours every day. We were lucky, we thought, as we arrived after the closure schedule. Our smiles quickly disappeared when we noticed that it might be our last trip. Driving slowly with the pieces of road falling a down from the underneath of the wheels. Nowhere to escape, nowhere to turn the car around to go back. We were stack to follow this death road with a rock wall on one side and the valley hundreds meters down on the other. After about an hour of holding my breath and trying not to look down, we got to the point where the two roads met. Obviously we knew that to go back we will be smarter and take the other path.

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Uff, we can breathe now and appreciate the landscapes, which were getting better and better. I mentioned to you before that high altitudes occasionally make me suffer quite a lot. Well, we were getting higher. After a couple of hours more and we got to the national park Lauca. Still no sign of the lake. The road got dusty and the heavy traffic become rather annoying by lifting the sand, which made our visibility difficult and breathing even more difficult. Since this road is one of the main transfer between this part of Chile and Bolivia, despite being in the total wilderness, there was no peace and quiet we would like.

Finally getting to Lago Chungará

Getting almost to the Bolivian border we spotted lagoons from far away letting us know that we are not far away from Chungará. The overlooking snow- capped volcanoes were making a beautiful contrast.

The altiplano in Chile or Bolivia shares similar landscapes. This place however is different. The colours are different and it feels more isolated and wild than many other areas, like the lagoons in San Pedro de Atacama region or on the way to Uyuni.

Lago Chungará is located at 4600 meter above the sea level with volcano Parinacota in the background. You can imagine that my movements were as in slow-motion mode. The air was thin and my head was about to explode. There was no time to adjust to the altitude and I had to forget the headache. This picturesque view was too beautiful to miss.

This place has something else that special: wildlife. On the way we observed vicuñas, very popular animals in the Andean regions in Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Beautiful pink flamingoes, although shy, were decorating already breathtaking landscape. A big surprise were hare-like animals: ñandú. Apart from those animals we saw alpacas and suris.

The way back was highlighted by the colours of the setting sun. A few hours of driving seemed long especially because of the road closures…again. We had to wait for the one-way traffic to pass for over an hour. Exhausted we stayed in Arica for the night. Arica did not interest us much the next day, but nearby there is a small village called San Miguel de Azapa. It is located in an oasis and mostly known for its archeological museum with items with more than 10000 years of history. I must say that it was a surprising discovery and both the village and the museum are worth visiting. One of the highlights of the museum are a few mummies that are even older than the Egyptian ones.

Why Lago Chungara is worth a trip?

A road trip to Lago Chungara is a really unique experience. I have seen many beautiful places during my travels in South America, but honestly I get speechless even after nearly two years of living and traveling around the continent. There was something special about this place. Flamingoes maybe? I always enjoy enormously watching them. This time I walked up to my ankles in mud to see them as close as possible as they tend to be shy. It is so beautiful to see animals in their natural habitat. Those moments remind me every time how beautiful our world is. What do you think?

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