April, 2005
TILCARA & PUKARA ARGENTINA
April 7 - 9, 2005
The figure 8 Salta loop continued, and got even more beautiful. The drive to Purmamarca was windy and slow, but took us through a beautiful mountainous jungle. This was obviously a big departure from the very dry areas we had spent the past few days in. Once we descended into the town of Purmamarca, the landscape returned to a dessert again, but Purmamarca had the most vibrant painted desert of any area yet.
The town itself is beautiful. It is very small, with maybe 10 streets and a central plaza nestled at the bottom of hills that look like something out of a CG movie. We got there just in time to get in a very scenic run and catch the sunset. The elevation was an ass kicker, but the views were worth it. At sunset, the mountains turned the deepest red, purple and orange you can imagine.
We shacked up at an awesome hotel called La Posta. It was cheap, but immaculate, with lots of charm. Plus, they owned a restaurant by the same name in the main plaza with delicious food . . . at 10% off! Whoopee! Then, after a great bottle of our Etchart wine, we got a great nights sleep, which I think we both needed.
The next morning we bought some fine Guanacos products (imagine a deer crossed with a sheep) and headed off into those beautiful hills for a hike. The stage of erosion going on there looks like what we imagine Bryce Canyon in Utah must have looked like 10,000 years ago. Come to think of it, a lot of what we saw on the Southern part of the drive looked like this. We could see the beginnings of Hoodoos (the big cylindrical formations at Bryce) forming, but the hills still looked more like big piles of dirt that a huge little kid had poured a bunch of water on. That's the composition of the hills as well, pretty much like dirt clods.
After a few hours, we got in the car and headed the 3 hours to Salinas Grandes, which are Argentina's version of the Bonneville Salt Flats, or Unayi in Bolivia. The drive out that way is not as visually stunning as other parts of the drive, however, it is some of the best driving of the trip. The road is wide, and modern, with tons of 20 foot high cacti, and cliff views over the side up to about 14,000 feet. Then, you get to descend on the same type of road into the salt flats.
The flats themselves were like nothing we had ever seen. It looks like you are standing in snow, and its so bright you need sunglasses. The salt is pavement hard, but it is sitting on top of water, so every so often you find patches of salt water. Plus, they do a certain amount of salt mining there, so the pools from which they mine the salt are exposed square saltwater holes. We had fun running around for a while, and tasting the salt, which was very high quality. Should have filled a shaker I suppose. All of the buildings out there (there are only 3) are made of salt as well. Not sure how it handles rain. At any rate, this is one of the occasions where the pictures do the place justice, so check them out.
Once we got back to Purmamarca, we started the drive to the town of Tilkara, and the adjacent ruins at Pucara. As usual, the drive was spectacular, I guess we're getting spoiled. Tilcara, is a charming town with a ton of great folk music, and delicious food. Plus, we found this great hostal, Malca, which had these huge, rustic (in a good way), rooms, with a porch and a big fenced grass yard, two awesome dogs and incredible mountain views. Unfortunately we had to leave early the next morning to get back to Salta, because we really wanted to sleep in, in that comfy room.
Just a 20 minute walk from the cebnter of Tilcara are the Pukara ruins. Pre-Incan nomads lived in this village over 10,000 ago. The site is amazingly well preserved, and they have installed a great network of trails so that you can explore the entire site without damaging the structures. Plus, for better, or for worse, some of the structures have been restored, so that you can get a better idea of how these folks lived. It was both educational, and good exercise.
We're definitely going to miss Argentina, maybe the best country yet!
