Argentina!

An epic 8 hour bus ride across the Atacama Desert, past volcanoes and salt flats, led us to Argentina.  We haven’t done a land border crossing in a long long time, but we were prepared for everything we were told the brder agents would ask for including a travelers health insurance policy.  I’ve always cheaped out on buying one but as of July 1 it is supposedly required for Argentina, along with proof of onward travel.  Border control didn’t ask us for anything except for the name of the hostel we were staying at.  It took just about an hour to process all 36 passengers from our bus. It was windy, sunny, and cold at 14,000 feet.

 First stop is Purmamarca.  A well preserved small town that is teeming with tourists who seemed to be mostly Argentinian.  No one spoke English, neither the locals or other tourists.  Off the beaten track for Americans for sure, but not Argentinians.  Everyone was carrying around their tote bags of yerba mate supplies with thermos of hot water and large bag of yerba mate .  People walk around sipping and  replenishing  their tea all day out of these specialized mugs and a metal straw that is perforated on the end to strain out the tea.  I’ve learned that mate is a symbol of national identity. 

Street food wasn’t a thing in San Pedro de Atacama, but it is here…finally!  You can mostly find fried empanadas and grilled quesadillas that are sealed up on the ends.  Both are good but the most incredible street food we had was a paper cone of tiny Andean potatoes smothered in salsa and a handmade blue corn tortilla filled with quinoa and chicken.   In the central square we watched a group of really talented musicians and dancers performing folkloric music and dance that tourists would join in on. Everyone seemed happy and proud. 

Purmamarca is famous for the Cerritos de los Siete Colores, a two mile loop that begins and ends in town and takes you through beautiful scenery of these mountains that display multi colored layers of rock.  

The other reason to come here was to visit the Salinas Grande, the third largest salt flat in the world.  There’s an intersection where drivers will shout “Salinas Salinas”, you give them your name and about 16 usd and wait for the next available van.  Another surreal drive up to 14,000 where the driver will pull over for everyone to get out and take a picture of the altitude marker.  There’s so many people that they installed a duplicate marker to expire the process of van loads of tourists taking photos and at both there is a line of people waiting for the opportunity.  We took a photo of the people taking photos.

Salinas Grandes is completely set up for tourism.  You pay about 4 usd to walk out onto the salt flats where you will see employees in bright green hoodies with a que of tourists waiting their turn for them to take the iconic salt flat photos of them.  They have props of a dinosaur and a mate cup and encourage you to pose for photos that use a technique called forced perspective to create optical illusions.  The seemingly endless horizon of a salt flat eliminates depth cues and can make distant objects appear larger or smaller.

We had a lot of fun with this, and planned ahead by bringing  an object from home, a toy tiger that has been sitting on the frame of  a big mirror in our hallway for 20 years.  The photographers know exactly how to take the perfect pictures.  We didn’t plan this color blocked matching outfit but it kinda worked out!

In the entrance area are many empanada sellers and a section for salt souvenirs.  All the little huts are made out of salt blocks.  The whole trip takes about 4.5 hours. Crazy touristy for sure but it was a whole lot of fun!

Tomorrow we will be heading to Iruya, a tiny village at the end of a very bumpy dirt road.