Salta - Salinas Grandes & Purmamarca

After 23 hours on the bus, we arrived in Salta. We took a taxi to our hostel for 2€. It was an old, rickety car. My suitcase was on the passenger seat, Tom barely fit in the trunk, and our backpacks were squeezed between and on top of us. But since the ride was only 10 minutes, we managed.

When we arrived at the hostel, the first thing we did was take a break. Unfortunately, there was no heating, and the window was open, so it smelled a bit musty. But well, it was the cheapest hostel in town, and we need to save money to get back on track with our budget.
After resting for a while, we soon met a girl from Bautzen who had a similar route to ours and is going to San Pedro de Atacama next. She told us that the Paso Jama (pass) from Argentina to Chile is currently closed due to snow and there are no buses running. That sounded promising. Since we weren't leaving for another 4 days, we didn't worry about it and took it easy, exploring the city, buying food, and booking a tour - which was definitely a great experience...

We went to two tour operators who didn't offer what I had found on the internet. They all told us that it takes two days, but on viator, I saw: Salinas Grandes (salt flats), Purmamarca (seven-colored mountain), and Gorge de Humahuaca. So we booked the tour online for just under 60€ per person. When we received the confirmation email, we also found out which provider it was. The tour operator's office was 20m away from where we were standing. So we went there because we could only book online for Wednesday, but we wanted to go on Tuesday since we were supposed to continue on Wednesday. Well, in the end, it was no problem. However, the tour only cost 50€ in the store... very annoying. And Gorge de Humahuaca is the region from Purmamarca to Humahuaca, so we didn't go all the way to Humahuaca to see the triangular mountains.

On Monday, we explored the city center since Tom didn't feel like it on Sunday and thought we would have plenty of time the next day. Monday wasn't a blue sky anymore, but it wasn't raining either, so it was okay. Many people on the internet say that the city is gray and boring. We didn't find that to be true as there are some really beautiful churches, and the central square is well renovated. 

There are certainly some streets that haven't been invested in as much, but the colonial architecture can still be seen in many buildings. However, the city center is not big, so we didn't need more than 2 hours to explore it.

Since it was around lunchtime, most stores were closed. The opening hours from 8:30-10:30 and 17:00-20:00 are only in South America. But the tourist shops were naturally open. I had seen a pen with a llama on top in El Calafate, so I wanted to see if it's cheaper here. And indeed, it was less than 2€ instead of 10€. It was priced at 30 Pesos, but we only had 25 small bills, and the cashier was perfectly fine with that.

In the evening, two new Germans arrived while the others left. The two had already experienced a lot and managed to travel much cheaper than us, although they rarely go on tours. It was super interesting to hear their stories from their world trip :)

Tuesday was our tour day. We were picked up at around 7 am and saw the city in the dark. It was a huge sea of lights. The assumed 10,000 inhabitants (because of the small city center) turned out to be 700,000.

We first went to Volcán by bus. It's a place that doesn't have a volcano nearby, but a few years ago, it was hit by a mudslide that buried all the houses in meters of mud. The road to and from the town was cleared of mud, creating two to three-meter-high walls.
There was also an artisan market here, where we bought cocoa leaves and chewing gum for the trip, which goes up to 4170m. There were also other knick-knacks like ceramic mugs and alpaca socks and sweaters (but we're still waiting for Bolivia and Peru).
Since everything was still covered in fog, we hoped for improvement. Our tour guide said that it would get better soon and polished his sunglasses, ready to put them on. Sometimes he even bets his lunch - but he always wins, he joked.
Less than a minute after putting on his sunglasses, the sun broke through the clouds, and after a while, we even had blue sky. So we made a stop in Purmamarca to take photos of the seven-colored mountain in the sunlight. The vendors immediately came over and tried to sell their scarves.

After taking all the photos, we got back on the bus and started putting cocoa leaves in our cheeks, which is supposed to help with altitude sickness. - By the way, you need over 500kg for 2g of cocaine, so you really have to chew a lot to see pink elephants. After about an hour of driving on winding roads, we reached the summit at 4170m. There was even a stone plaque for taking photos.

Going down the other side of the mountain, we could briefly see the salt flats in the distance. Another hour later, we arrived at the Salinas Grandes and had about half an hour to take all the necessary and unnecessary photos. So we walked onto the salt flats to take our photos. This is where salt is extracted, so there were many water-filled ditches - the water was really salty!

Tom and I hopped over or between the ditches, took photos, and tried not to look too windblown and disheveled in the wind.

Then we went back to Purmamarca, a total of about two and a half hours driving the same way back. We went to the recommended restaurant, which honestly wasn't that great. Tom tried the lamb, which was quite tough and came with a strange jelly-like pepper sauce. My chicken was also overcooked - but better than the llama..

Then we climbed a small hill to get a better view of the seven-colored mountain than in the morning. At the 'entrance', there was a woman with a child who charged 5 Pesos (about 30 cents) per person.

Then we took the bus back to Salta. Everyone was exhausted and partly asleep. Tom and I played Skat on our phones - our latest pastime.
At the bus station, we asked about the prices and departures to San Pedro de Atacama, but nothing goes before Friday or Saturday. And once again, it costs 50€ per person for a 10-hour bus ride.

Since we now have a few more days, we decided to go to Humahuaca (by the way, pronounced Humawaka) and spend the time there until our departure and then go from Purmamarca to Chile.

Next Stop: Humahuaca, Argentina