Date of Entry: January 7th 2016
Date of Writing: December 20th 2016, Hostel Hipolita, San Rafael, Argentina.
Our third day on the road together is the most ambitious yet and so we’re up before 8 to eat a quick breakfast included with the hostel (I skip since I’m dieting) and hit the road headed to our first main destination for the day, Gran Salinas. Long before we get there though there’s lots of stops on the always impressive roads through this region, though this one is rough and uneven gravel. Still our first stops comes when we see countless lamas nearby the road with mountains behind them, two Lamas particularly enjoying the morning with some sex. The sound is quiet, steady and utterly disturbing, just like it always seems to be.
We pile back into the car but this morning seems to be the morning of animals because before long we’ve pulled over again to check out some actual vicuna’s and not their slightly thicker framed cousins the guanaco’s. We also get an extra special surprise in the form of a surprisingly awake and very beautiful owl sitting just in front of them. Ive not seen an owl in the wild in a long time so I’m thrilled. And the vicuna Pooping moment was an entirely unexpected bonus.
We keep driving, our bodies all being thoroughly massaged by the bumpy and uneven road, an eventually we come to a sign and a small even more uneven road which according to the sign leads to the Salinas. It’s still early so we take it and soon enough we’re driving past the crumbling ruins of a few buildings and out onto what seems to be the start of the salt flats, though at this point they’re more brown than white, though soon enough that begins to shift. Were coming at them from the other side unlike my tour, so I don’t know where we are exactly.
We head further out onto the endless flat pain and soon enough all but the faintest traces of normal earth are left behind. We pass some bikers and then the road proceeds to disappear, though tires seem to mark the route so we figure it’s not really a big problem and we’ll easily get across them without getting at all lost. In case the foreshadowing wasn’t clear here’s a spoiler alert, We (especially me) we’re very wrong.
Before any worry rises in our guts though we stop right near the end of the road for lots of fun Salt flat type photos. I’m unsure they’ll work outside of the Uyuni flats in Bolivia, after all could these ones really be big and flat enough, turns out they are. I have plenty of such photos so we focus more on Mari and Yan but I enjoy the challenge of playing with perspective and getting as many good ones as I can.
Eventually we get back in the car and drive on out into the vast whiteness, the mountains looming in the background that are fare more distant than they appear. At first it’s great and we are enveloped in the colour of the season that Martin seems to think is always coming. The same season I’m escaping by not being in Canada now, though the sun here is dangerously strong and it’s quite warm. We make another stop out in the endless middle of the whiteness to take some more silly photos.
Here we pop the giant spare tire back in the trunk and hit the rod again, following the tires, at least at first. After maybe 20 minutes driving across firm unmarked salt the tires grow more and more sporadic, eventually almost entirely disappearing. If they are meant to mark the way across they do a very poor job of it. And soon enough we are completely lost and fighting down panic, with no idea how to get off these more expansive than I first thought salt flats. This is the view in every direction and it’s beyond intimidating. At least we have almost a full tank of gas.
We try to press onwards at first but find just the endless piles seen above, and no sign of the mountains in the distance getting any closer. Crap.
We eventually decide it’s time to try to backtrack, at least that way we might have some vague sense of direction that way. We head back but soon we’re in puddle land and the once stable terrain of pure white is suddenly shifting to ridged shapes full of potholes and puddles of salt water which is undoubtedly bad for the car. And it’s only getting rougher.
We eventually see a car speeding ahead in the distance above us perpendicularly and I try to watch where it goes in relation to the mountains, but out here we quickly learn how deceiving your eyes can be, things that appear close take way too long to get to and it’s just downright scary. We make a few stops me using the zoom on my camera to try to find some trace of the road at the edge of the falls. We get brief glimmers of metal and head towards them over the roughest terrain yet, which mercifully evens out after a few minutes as we come close to the edge of the flats, driving along them looking for any sign of a road. It finally comes up ahead and we see another car heading out into the flats as well as a truck full of locals busy changing a tire. They tell us they think the road ahead is the highway we’re looking for and it’s soon confirmed by a sign I’m so happy to see. Truth be told I think about 10 more minutes would have seen me eating people, and I wasn’t even particularly hungry.
The rough dirt road takes us again and before long I’m missing the smooth sections of the salt flats even if they almost trapped us for eternity. At least the drive was usually smoother. We pass small seemingly abandoned settlements and not much else for the next hour or so before finally hitting the paved highway which will take us to Purmamarca.
All of us glad to be back on a paved road with some form of sporadic other traffic around us. Yann most of all of course but all of us are glad and eager to get to Purmamarca to buy some food, since it’s already past 3 pm and we’ve not eaten since breakfast. Still we’re not so hungry that we don’t stop at an amazing high place with some strange rock formations which we run down to and climb up as best we can.
We make another brief stop too as we wind down from the highest point at around 4300 meters and come to an opening in the cliff face,which turns out to be a very man made room that smells of feces and urine. I guess not everything can be amazing, but the scenery all around us that we drive by on the way to purmamarca makes up for it, and here I can take more pictures than I could on my way there with the tour, since Yann slows and even makes more stops for us, despite our growing hunger.
By the time we pull in to the charming little town of Purmamarca it’s past 4 and the sky has turned ominously dark, thunder booming in the distance. We’re starved but find all the real restaurants are closed for siesta and so we settle for some ham and cheese tortillas wandering around the crowded tourist town full of artesian stalls selling more common souvenirs of the andes, making my friends glad they went shopping the night before in San Antonio.
Soon enough the rain begins though, coming down quite firmly and forcing us back to the car. We’re running late anyway and want to head north on the 9 towards our hopeful final destination tonight Humahuaca, with the plan to come back to Purmamarca to climb the hill seen above the next morning, since it’s on the way back to Salta anyway.
The drive up on the main road is a nice change from the gravel we’ve grown accustomed too and lets us whiz by a collection of cool looking towns seen above and still more incredibly coloured mountains. Eventually the weather starts to clear and we start making stops again, gazing up in awe at the incredible mountains which seem to hold more than 7 colours, though we still are trying to figure out where the famous 7 coloured hill is. (Hint we’ve already seen it.)
After passing by lots of small towns we finally stop in one named Uquia. famous for it’s church showing angels with weapons. Of course the church is closed but we’re eager to stretch our legs and so head up towards the graveyard above town, of course it’s backed by beautiful multi coloured mountains. There’s even a hostel in this town which looks quite nice and If you’re looking for a quieter place to stay than humahuaca it would be a great option. Plus the school here is painted very brightly which makes me smile
We eventually head back into the car and pass by some impressively decorated tourist stores on the road before eventually reaching our final destination with about a half hour of sunlight left. We find out most places in town are booked up so head across the bridge to another collection of hotels just a quick jaunt into the centre and end up staying in the charming Hosteria Munay for 600 Pesos for the room, which is the fanciest I’ve stayed in forever.
we head into the centre of town for some internet and then dinner at a charming little place which makes a passable but not special lasagna. We then head back to the hostel to grab some sleep knowing we have to have the car back in Salta by 2:30 pm the next day, and we’ve got lots of stops planned. Stay tuned for the next entry.
