Laguna de Guayatayoc is a large, saline lake situated in the Cochinoca Department of Jujuy Province, in the high-altitude Puna region of northwestern Argentina. Resting at approximately 3,200–4,000 meters above sea level on the Altiplano plateau, this remote and striking body of water covers roughly 240 square kilometres (93 square miles) and reaches an average depth of about 6 metres (20 feet). The lake sits within an endorheic basin — meaning water flows in but has no outlet to the sea — and is nearly connected to the vast Salinas Grandes salt flats to its south. The surrounding landscape is one of extreme aridity, with annual rainfall measuring less than 0.2 centimetres, making the lake and its associated wetlands an extraordinary and ecologically significant feature of this high desert environment. The lake's surface area fluctuates considerably with the seasons and longer drought-and-humidity cycles: summer (December through March) is the rainy season on the Puna, so the lake reaches its greatest extent in March and April. The waters are saline, a characteristic that fundamentally shapes the ecology of the lake and the wildlife it supports.