Flat and white... and large!

May 7th, 2019, it was my last day in Salta and I decided to go to the flat and white and large area, Salinas Grande.

We drove in 4x4 car, with Javier as our driver/ guide. Going out from Salta, we passed Quebrada del torro, the mud gorge with some train bridges of el trein a las nubes, the touristic train that goes around this gorge, that appears now and then in between the gorge. We then stopped at Santa Rosa de Tastil. Tastil is a rock that can sing, apparently the rocks found in this area can make a noisy due to high content of metal. Passing another gorge, Quebrada de las cuevas then we arrived at the mining town with the train station, San Antonio de los Cobres. From here we passed the dessert areas where we could see lamas (domesticated) and vicunas. Viscunas has only white/ light brown color, lamas can be white, brown, black color. Finally we arrived at Salinas Grandes. It is a truly salt flat with 300 m depth. Only white and white… the sun was shinning and there is also reflection from the salt ground. Here where people can make illusional picture like holding a car, people walking on top of your hand/ nose, etc. But I was just doing a jumping picture with more colorful shirt. I sat at the side of the water pond, just watching people around, enjoying the view. Again flat, white and large, as far as I can see with my sunglasses, it is still flat and white. I really feel small...

Then we continued driving to Purmamarca via Lipan slope, Questa de Lipan. Beautiful view from the other side of the seven colors hill in Purmamarca. In this area, we can see the cliffs that formed from a glacier million years ago, Inca trails, the slope itself as we went down from 4170 m to below 3000 m in Purmamarca.

I was in this area yesterday and I enjoyed it even more today, the seven color hills!