Driving on through the Alti Plano (High Plains) semi desert landscape...small Vicuna herds graze on the scant vegetation. They are very shy, and flee whenever any human disturbance is near. They are indeed native to this area, they are wild (not domesticated like llamas), they have fur instead of wool. They belong to the cameloid family of animals, like camels, dromedaries, llamas and alpacas.
After being hunted for meat, fur etc to almost extinction, they are now a protected species.
Vicuna gazing into the vast distance of the Alti Plano.
 |
| Kilometer after kilometer of dusty dirt road. Our truck windows are tightly shut. Routa 52, intersects with our dust bowl road after 36 km, where Argentina's largest high altitude salt flats are located. Being one of the main arteries between Chile (ends at the Pacific near Antofagasta after skirting the driest desert of the world, the Atacama Desert) and Argentina, and is police patrolled every few kilometers. We were waved through every one of them. We probably did not look like drug smugglers. |
 |
| Although still a long way away, the shimmering reflection of Salinas Grandes forms a glimmering line at the base of Sierra de Chaci. We are driving towards the Quebrada de Humahuaca, another limiting edge to the salt flats. |
 |
| We are in high plains desert, however a meandering stream makes its way through a web of branches along the shallowest part of the plain, crossing the dirt road in many places. The truck drives into these fast flowing streams, of unknown depth, and for moments at the time, flying mud and curtains of yellow water reduce visibility to zero. Four wheel drive is definitely a must, as even this large VW truck slid and squelched slowly through the morass. |
 |
| We pass a desert cemetery. Salt flat workers, who died at work - far away from any social assistance, medical help, or even family care - are buried on a rock strewn arid hill top. They died blind, often cancer ridden...at over 3500 meters altitude, under a literally blinding sun, with merciless reflection of pure white salt flats, blindness and skin cancer were common. Not to take any other work hazards into account, life in this harsh environment is definitely not for the faint of heart. The workers lived in small rocky abodes, stark living conditions, and died alone whenever their bodies could not take it anymore. |
 |
| Salt processing area on the Salinas Grandes. The sky takes on an unreal shade of purplish blue, a light covering of water on top of the salt reflects the overabundance of light. Heat is intense, ultra violet rays merciless. One covers up, one stand in whatever shade there is, one squints even behind the protection of sunglasses. |
 |
| Almost and arctic landscape in colour tones, but we are at the Tropic of Capricorn, the dividing line between the Sub Tropics and the Tropics. |
 |
| Even here at the end of the world, a soccer goal. Not in use today, as the salt flat is covered with a thin layer of water.... |
 |
| The Salinas Grandes are not the largest in South America, but are the largest in Argentina. About 212 square kilometers in size. A much larger Salina is located across the border in Chile....about 50 times the size of this one. |
 |
| Seth's wife turned into a pillar of salt....here it's merely a herd of salt llamas. |
 |
| Local citizens put up their vending tables even here... |
 |
| A 'collectivo', bus, has it's turn around stop at the salt flats. |
 |
| An Old Salt, a saint protecting the workers... |
 |
| Apart from earth moving equipment, salt processing seems rather primitive.... |
 |
| Tractor parked beside the flats.. |
 |
| Building blocks of salt...everything seems to be constructed of salt in this place |
 |
| Eco friendly tea kettle, a 'solar oven'. With intense sunlight so plentiful, a reflective bowl holds a kettle or cooking pot in its center, and - voila - a stove! |
 |
| Carved rock with llama and cardones motiv... |
 |
| There is a sign advertising a restaurant for local food, salt artifacts, carved rock and llama wool... |
 |
| And another sign, promising empanadas and home made bread for sale.... |
 |
And this is the restaurant as seen through the broken glass of its entry door. All, except the door, constructed of salt.
Not an empanada in sight! |
 |
| Visitors frolic on the salt plains as if on a large, but very dangerous beach. A few minutes exposure result in severe sunburn or snow blindness. |
 |
| Trucks roll over the flats to the latest 'dig', where the salt is extracted from the flats. Surface salt does not appear to be their target. Deep pits, some 250 meters deep, are dug into the flats, and salt from those levels is brought to the surface, crushed, and then sent to Tucuman (another province) for final processing. |
 |
| A life sized salt llama guards the abandoned 'restaurant' |
 |
| And off to Purmamarca, over one of the highest passes during this excursion, towards our overnight stop over at El Refugio de Coquena... |
 |
| High rocky desert with very little vegetation |
 |
| Now we are in the province of Jujuy, north again and bordering onto Bolivia. On top of the pass, a small dwelling in old pre inca style with a couple of present day improvements. Some of the street vendors selling their wares here, stay in these stone huts. |
 |
| 4.170 meters altitude. Upon the advice of our driver, I kept a few coca leaves from a cup of freshly brewed coca tea, and put it - Inca fashion - into my cheeks. Sure fire remedy against altitude sickness, headache and tiredness. It worked, as apart from a slight shortness of breath whenever I walked a little uphill, I felt as good as I would at sea level. |
 |
One of the hundreds of shrines dedicated to Gauchito Gil, the unofficial and almost pagan patron saint of all truck drivers and drivers in general. Here another one at over 4000 feet high...
|
As soon as we descended from the pass, clouds closed in. The fog was so dense, that one could only make out the next couple of yards of narrow twisting road ahead of the truck. Maybe just as well, as this road wound along steep cliffs and negotiated some hair rising switchbacks, even coca leaf in cheek, this could have been more than a dizzying experience. On the other hand - we missed out on some awe inspiring scenery of part of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the Gorge of Humahuaca.
But - Pumarmarca promises to be a treasure in its own right...more about that later.
