Ansenuza National Park and Mar Chiquita

National Park Created 2022 Around Laguna Mar Chiquita, The Largest Salt Lake In South America, A Ramsar Wetland And One Of The Continent'S Great Flamingo Sites · Miramar de Ansenuza, Cordoba

Mar Chiquita, the little sea, is the largest salt lake in South America, a vast shallow body of brackish water in the flat north-east of Cordoba province whose size swells and shrinks with the rains. Around it lie wetlands where the Rio Dulce enters, and together they hold enormous numbers of birds: all three South American flamingo species, including the rare Andean and James's flamingos which winter here, and hundreds of thousands of migratory shorebirds from North America. The area was made the Ansenuza National Park in 2022, taking its name from a local legend. The only real town on the shore is Miramar de Ansenuza, a spa town whose own history tells the lake's power: in the 1970s the water rose and swallowed much of it, including its grand hotels, whose ruins still stand in the shallows. The town survives on birdwatchers, visitors who come to float in the salty water and coat themselves in its mud, and sunsets over a horizon that looks like the sea. It is flat, remote and quiet, and not everyone will see the appeal.

Costanera, Miramar de Ansenuza, Cordoba, Miramar de Ansenuza, Cordoba, X5143, Argentina

The lake shore at Miramar is open at all times. The national park's visitor facilities are new and still developing; confirm what is open. Bird numbers vary through the year.

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