5S - Jungle, Snow, Salt, Schönbunt and Sunburn - Purmamarca and Salinas Grande

Hi there, here I am again, this time cleverly uploaded the pictures before the report - thanks Tanke!

Today, Sunday, I have been in Argentina for 2 weeks, on Wednesday it will be halfway through. It won't go higher than yesterday and today, but maybe hotter, heading towards Chaco. Right now I am sitting in front of the terminal in Salta, waiting for my bus to Cordoba, 13h night bus, I treated myself to a Cama Ejecutivo (roughly Business class).

This morning at 6:45 a.m. I was picked up with all my belongings at the hostel and we went to Salinas Grandes via San Salvador de Juyjuy and Purmamarca. It was a bit hectic with little time for beautiful pictures, but I only paid the local price. Tourists always pay about ⅓-½ more than locals, for flights, admission and tours. I was the only German or foreigner on board, but I got nice extra explanations. We went through different vegetation zones again, sometimes there was a jungle on the right through the clouds on the mountains and on the left there was a kind of bushland. In Purmamarca we quickly stopped early in the morning for the morning photo of the colorful mountains, the colors come from various ores and minerals, and because everything was once deep below sea level and was lifted up by the tremendous tectonic forces, also from algae (green). I'll pause for a moment because dinner is being served on the bus.

So I'm back, let's continue. I had shopped before, fresh flatbread from the grill and cheese and sausage and pear water... Delicious. I'm digressing. We then continued through the Purmamarcatal, past rock walls that stand around like organ pipes, and of course cacti. Stopped briefly at the top for a view of the valley, and then continued to Pass 4170m, not quite as high as yesterday, but still. The little leaves to chew on were also there 😁. Shortly after the pass, the condors were circling and I tried to take pictures of them from the moving bus. Beautiful animals. Shortly afterwards we reached the destination, the salt pans of Salinas Grandes, about as big as all of Buenos Aires. And 30% of the world's lithium reserves are stored here and in the other salt flats in Argentina. It is not recommended to stay here for more than 40 minutes, as the effect of the sun is extremely intensified by the salt and the altitude. A few pictures and a dip in the salt lake were possible, then I could brush off the salt from my legs, everything was white. Back towards Purmamarca and suddenly it started snowing at 20°C - unbelievable, nothing stayed on the ground but you could see it on the windshield. In Purmamarca everyone went to eat, not me because I wanted to climb the hills around and take photos, which was quickly done and that's when the light sunburn on my shoulders came into play (SPF30 quickly ran out here), well, it was time for the cozy part - exactly 2 Cerveza por favor. The rest is quickly told, to the bus terminal or to the gas station next door and I finished my blog work. Now I'm heading to Cordoba in a luxury bus.

See pictures.

Bye for now.