Of mountains, wind and waves: Salta

Probably because we complained too much about the heat in La Rioja it was raining cats and dogs as we arrived in Salta. That's why we looked for a restaurant and had some really juicy steaks to forget about the rain.

The next day was already a little bit sunnier and we strolled around the city, had some coffee and organized our trip to the Salinas Grandes the next day. Pick up time: 7am at our hostel!
The next day a funny Salteño-guy called Emanuel awaited us with his 4x4 Toyota hilux outside the hostel. On the way we picked up another italian guy, Enriquo, and left for our trip. The first thing Emanuel, also called Mitchi, explained to us was how to chew coca-leaves. They smell like rabbit-food and taste bitter. After a while your mouth gets a little numb but there was nothing more to notice. Our way lead us through Jujuy and up to Purmamarca, with it's famous Seven-Coulour-Mountains.

Seven Color Mountain

Coca-Leaves

Purmamarca Town

We had some time to walk around the village before we continued our trip up the mountains. Within 40 kilometers the road snaked its way up from 2.200m to 4.170m above sea level. Coca-chewing and astonished by the landscape we arrived at the top and luckily we didn't have any problems with the altitude.

In german we call it "FÖNFRISUR" ;-)

The highest point of our tour

We took a short break to enjoy the view and then went down on the other side of the mountains and there they were; Las Salinas Grandes. An enormous, never-ending and blinding white lake of salt. At first it seemed like a real lake filled with water but as we drove closer we saw that the moving and flittering was only the refection of the sun on the salt (I think that's what you call a fata-morgana). The salt lakes are as deep as 1km in the middle. We took some funny pictures in this never-ending white desert and after half an hour we had to leave because we already started to burn in the blazing sun.

Fata Morgana

"I love you soooo much!"

Salinas Grandes Panorama

We took the Ruta 40, a dirt road in direction San Antonio de los Cobres, which is part of the Panamericana highway. After nearly 3 hours on Ruta 40 we reached San Antonio de los Cobres, a small town with the highest elevation (3.775m) of any city or town in Argentina. We stopped there for lunch and had some fantastic asado (grilled meat). Our way continued down the mountains again in direction Salta. Most of the time the street winds down next to the Tren a las Nubes (the third highest railway in the world), until - after passing more of fascinating and amazing landcape - you reach Salta again. It was a long but really spectacular day!