Thursday 16th January 2025: Up to the Salinas Grandes

The view from our bedroom of the Quebrada de Humahuaca is stunning.  Our host had provided breakfast - bread, cheese, fruit, and veg.  We ate it outside in the sunshine.

There were some coca leaves that would be illegal in the UK.  We've had them before in Chile and Peru for altitude sickness but not sure if they worked.

All Argentinian houses seem to have these big cups but we're not sure what they are for.  

Below is the view from our bedroom.  The furthest and highest hills are snow capped.

When we visited the Quebrada de Humahauca yesterday it was overcast and the colours in the hills were subdued.  One of the most famous sights here is the hill of the seven colours, a striking striped landscape, and we saw nothing like it.  Having rechecked our guidebooks, it isn't technically in the Quebrada but is on the road leading up to the paso de Jama.  As it was, we were going up that road today to see the Salinas Grandes.

The coloured hill over towers the village of Purmamarca, and can be viewed from a lay-by on the roadside.  We were lucky the colours were vivid as the sun was in the right direction.  I could explain the geological origins of the colourful array but the interpretation boards can do that more easily.

The whole area is an UNESCO World Heritage site so that's another one ticked off!

We continued up the Ruta Nacional 52 that eventually leads to Chile.  The valley sides were stunning with architectural formations on both sides, though our photos do not do it justice.

Finally we began to climh up the famous Cuesto de Lipan, rising 1500 m metres in altitude in a 15 kilometre long series of hairpins.  Not for the faint hearted.  You can just about see some of the roads on the hillside inthe photo below.

But the best viewpoint was from above.

At the top of the Altos de Morado pass, there was a monument to have a picture with.  Even at this height, there were vendors, sheltering in stone built trenches, selling souvenirs and sweets.

The road down the other side was less dramatic.

We were stopped by a donkey who came to the passenger window.

We've visited salt flats before in the Atacama desert in Chile and the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.  But nothing quite prepares you for seeing the vast expanses of dazzingly white in the distance.

The road to Chile cuts across the salt flats at a height of 3450 m.  They cover 212 km square.  In the past we have seen dry salt flats but as it has been raining here, there was a thin layer of water on the salt, acting like a great mirror.

In the distance we could see the snow topped volcano, Nevado de Chani (6200m).

There is a huge thermal amplitude between day and night, with the temperatures during the day at a maximum of 28 degrees Celcius and at night in winter, well below zero.

The flats are mainly the homes to the  Kolla and Atakam indigenous people.  Like the communities of Uyuni in Bolivia, they are fighting the threat of lithium mining in the area that would put at risk the salinas' fragile ecosystem and divert their scarce water supplies to the mining extraction. (Rainfall here is exceptionally low.) There were protest signs against big business moving in.

The reflection from the salt flats is intense, and despite covering up, you could feel the heat on your skin.

We returned back down the hairpins, which was a little less fraught than going up.  The afternoon light highlighted some of the strata on the eastern side of the quebrada.

We arrived back at Tilcara, intent on visiting a restored pre-Columbian fortress or pukara south of the town.  We delayed our departure due to the thunder and ominous rain clouds rolling in.  There was some rain, but eventually it passed over.  The pukara stands on a hill about 1 km south of the town and involves an uphill walk and across a steel bridge.

We could see the pukara in the distance, but found out it was shut for the day as it is a protected monument.

A gentleman advised us there was a flatter route back to the town centre, which we were grateful for.

We passed the bus terminal that featured in the second series of Celebrity Race Across the world and found a restaurant nearby that did plenty of veggie food.  Our patio overlooked a small area where food stalls were setting up for the evening, wild dogs roamed the streets and long distance buses came and went.

Having gone dark, we headed back to our accommodation to catch up with the blog.   The internet is a bit on and off here, and Joan's phone wasn't talking to our Chrome book so there are some more photos of the evening to upload.