We woke up early on Wednesday so we could make the trek to our next stop, Purmamarca.  We were a little low on provisions so Kim and I roamed the streets to find anything open.  We weren’t that successful and could only manage to get a little water and crackers.

One of the best parts of a road trip are the moments that pass with music in the car.  We all shared a little bit of the music that we had, but mostly listened to the music that Pepe and Andres brought.  We had a broad mix of Spanish singers like Joaquin Sabina, Juan Manuel Serrat and Andres Calamaro (Argentine by birth) as well as tango songs including the soundtrack to the show Tango Feroz.  We also had Pepe’s party CD and samba CD which further livened up the mood.  Being a musical junkie, I made sure to rip Pepe’s CDs for my collection.

After a quick lunch in Humahuaca, we arrived in Purmamarca mid-afternoon.  This small town is famous for its 7-Colored Mountain.  We walked through the town center which had a small market, an old church and several restored older buildings.  It was incredibly charming.  We walked 2 blocks up the street to see the mountain.  It had stripes of reds, oranges, purples, greens, grays.  If you counted hues, the mountain had more than seven colors.  We had a mate at the base of the mountain to toast the day and the environment around us.

The final part of the agenda was to go due west to see the saltflats of Salinas.  Across northern Argentina, northern Chile, and southern Bolivia, there are several salt flats created over time as the ocean waters were trapped inland when the topography of South America changed.  Over time, the water evaporated leaving hundreds of thousands of acres of saltflats.

We took a little time to find a hostel and then were on our way.  We arrived just before dusk.  We crossed over a mountain range on the way and after descending we entered into a large valley where you could see the Andes marking the Chilean border to the west.  We parked and made our way onto the salt.  It was an incredible to stand in the middle of a sea of salt and see nothing but whiteness for as far as the eye could see.  The contrast of the mountains and the shades of sunset contrasted the salt for an immaculate vista.

We had a small incident where Noemi tripped and fell nose-first onto the salt.  It took a while for her to feel good enough to get up, but luckily, despite some nasty scraps, she was good to go.  Andres drove back and it probably wasn’t our best choice.  We found out later that it was his first time driving in the mountains.  As a result, we went a smooth 20km/hour for a good part of the way.  Finally, Pepe got behind the wheel and we got back to Purmamarca.

Despite feeling perfectly fine all day, I came down with a sudden case of altitude sickness on the way back.  So, I went straight to bed while the rest of the group went off for dinner.  I probably should have had some coca leaves during the day.

Originally Published September 14, 2007

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Tags: Argentina travel, career break travel, Jeff's Career Break Blog

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