Real Fountain Of Youth: Just Another Reason You Need To Visit South America ASAP

The philosopher's... lake?

Real Fountain Of Youth: Just Another Reason You Need To Visit South America ASAP

Lost summits. Crunching glaciers. Barren plains. Bolivia’s fault-forged landscape is known for attracting climbers, hikers and mountain bikers more than Pink Flamingo Enthusiasts looking to chill in a giant plunge pool.

That may be set to change.

While tourism numbers languished around 300,000 per year in the early 2000’s recent reports indicate Bolivia now sees around 1,134,000 visitors a year.

While cheap flights and the ‘wanderlust’ hashtag are the chief culprits for this, an iconic photo of a thermal pool on the Bolivian Altiplano – a high-altitude plateau between Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina littered with hot springs, salt lakes, geysers, and volcanoes – reveals there is another significant drawcard.

From, “Incredible: adding to the [bucket] list,” and “Looks like the god damned fountain of youth” the comments rolled in on Type 7’s Instagram page, from virtual-travellers from every corner of the globe.

This plays into a broader trend in the travel industry; non-adventurous people undertaking riskier journeys than they would have attempted in the past, to get the ‘gram.

 

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While it might be a while before the Bolivian Altiplano turns into Bondi Icebergs, we are seeing a definite uptick in tourists lazing about in formerly inhospitable locations (see: ‘Influencers Have Accidentally Been Posing In A Toxic Lake‘ and ‘Chernobyl’s Sexy Selfies‘).

Want to get a piece of your own? Make it snappy.

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