Laguna Verde is a colour you do not expect to find at four thousand three hundred metres, in a dry, wind-scoured corner of southwest Bolivia, a few kilometres from the Chilean border. The lake lies at the foot of Licancabur, a near-perfect volcanic cone that rises to about 5,900 metres on the frontier, and on a calm morning the cone is reflected in the water. The colour, a milky turquoise that can turn to emerald, comes from dissolved minerals, copper, magnesium, lead and arsenic among them, and it changes with the wind and the hour. Do not swim in it.
The surrounding country is the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, a high desert of red and ochre rock, sand and sparse yellow grass. Nearby lagoons hold flamingos, and vicuñas pick their way across the slopes. A short drive away are the Sol de Mañana geysers, where boiling mud and steam hiss out of the ground in a landscape that smells of sulphur, and the Polques hot springs, where you can lie in warm water with the cold wind on your face. The Dalí Desert, with its odd scattered boulders, is another stop along the route.
For a motorcyclist this is serious country. The tracks are sand, gravel and washboard, with deep soft patches and loose rock, and you need a bike you can trust and the skills to match it. The altitude brings its own problems: the air is thin, engines lose power, and people can suffer from headaches and breathlessness, so give your body time to adjust and drink plenty of water. Wind builds in the afternoon, often fierce, and temperatures can drop well below freezing at night, even in summer. Dress as if you were riding in the Arctic, then add another layer.
Carry spare fuel, food, water, a repair kit and a means of calling for help, and ride with at least one other bike if possible. Entry to the reserve requires a fee, paid at a gate, and a basic refuge near the lagoon offers beds and meals. Come early, before the wind, and you will see the lake at its best.