Salar cerca de Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico - Vídeo de stock 4K

In the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Puerto Rico, a quick walk through a mangrove swamp leads to an unexpected sight: cotton-candy pink water glistening in the sun. This is Las Salinas, the pink salt flats—a 1,249-acre area of two 18-inch-deep natural lagoons that have been altered to mine salt, and an Instagram-worthy destination for the fluctuating pastel shades of the water. The color ranges from reddish brown to bright pink to cloudy white, all depending on the day and the weather, though more often than not it’s pink. The hue is thanks to a combination of algae, bacteria, salt and water. An algae called Dunaliella salina is mainly responsible for the water color in the salt flats. Even though it’s in the green algae family, it’s stuffed full of carotenoids—the pigment that gives many orange and red fruits and vegetables their color. In this particular algae, those carotenoids are red. Archaea, a bacteria and prokaryotic organism floats around in the salt flats as well. It has a pigment called rhodopsin that also appears red. The rainy season, April through November, makes for the best time to visit the salt flats.