To the Clouds!

I'm getting used to this rising-when-it's-dark-outside thing. It was my third day in Salta (Wednesday). Kristian and I looked like the walking dead at 6:30 in the morning, but we were excited for our trip to the clouds. We boarded the van at about 7:30 (once again Argentina never runs on time) and started off our drive into the mountains of the province of Salta.

We followed the path of El Tren a Las Nubes (the train to the clouds). The train was originally built to facilitate imports and exports between Argentina and Chile. But by the time it was finished, it was economically inefficient. So now, it's a tourist train through the mountains. To their credit, it is a very pretty drive. Our first stop was the Viaduct. Being winter, there was basically no water beneath it, but the mountains were beautiful even in the overcast morning weather.

The tour was a lot of stop and go. We hit three main points past the Viaduct and on the way got our every so often to take pictures of rocks. Sounds boring, but with rocks that pretty it wasn't. Our first official stop was in San Antonio de Los Cobres. I was told I had to go there. To be honest, I'm not sure why. We took some pictures of the tiny tiny town over a desert-like hillside and met some of the locals. They were only interested in selling their wares. They live off of tourist visits. Then we ate some lunch - well the meat-eaters ate lunch, I had what they called soup (hot water and barely). What I will tell you about San Antonio is that I have never seen a bluer sky in my life. You don't realize how blue the sky really is until there aren't any clouds in the way. And since we were above the clouds, I now know how blue the sky is.

Back in the van we had our first mate circle! Mate is the international drink of Argentina. It's basically tea, but the act of preparing it and drinking it is practically a ceremony. But we had time in the van, so Omero (our guide) passed around the mate. The first time I tried it here, I thought it was bitter. But it's amazing what you can learn to like when you are really really cold. Despite the cold, Kristian and I were having a great time. We were taking silly pictures, enjoying the views, and napping when we could in the van. AND next stop was the Salt Flats. Las Salinas Grandes are the third biggest salt flats in the world. The biggest are in Bolivia and the second place winner is in Chile. These salt flats were pretty huge, so I can't even imagine the others. The salt flats are the result of surrounding volcanoes that produce mass amounts of salty lava (or was it salty water) and then drying up, leaving behind huge plains of white salt. The volcanoes didn't know it at the time, but they produced a harvesting ground for the salt we all eat. They also didn't know that they created the perfect backdrop for silly pictures without depth perception.

I stood on Kristian's shoulders - like a shoulder angel. I squished him under my foot. He squashed me between his hands. We both went surfing on our little toy llama - a figurine we had bought for 5 bucks just so we could mess with it in our infamous photoshoot. We had the best time manipulating photos. Oh the easily entertained children that live in our souls.

After a 40 minute photoshoot, we got back in the bus for our ride to the highest altitude of the day and on to Purmamarca. We hit an alltime high of 4,170 meters. Everyone warned me about altitude sickness. I didn't feel a thing. Our guide Omero said it was all in our heads. So I chose not be sick. Pretty cool, huh?

We then continued on this massive sloping, winding highway. In a distance of 35 kilometers we descended 2000 meters. Thats a pressure change for you.

Finally, we made it Purmamarca. A beautiful little town by El Cerro de los Siete Colores (the seven colors hill). I loved the old-fashion nature of the town: the little old woman molding clay into a pot, the old man leading the horse who was dragging the plow through the fields. And in the backdrop, a mountain of seven colors. Purples, pinks, reds, greens, yellows, greys, browns. They weren't as vibrant as I had hoped, but they were there. Like a rainbow trapped in the mountainside.

That was our last piece of natural brilliance before the long drive back to Salta. But I spent the day above the clouds. It was well worth the trip.

BESOS!

(p.s. I am back in the land of no laptop internet. I will post pictures soon!)