Purmamarca, Jujuy- highlight of the trip!

We drove from Salta to Purmamarca, Jujuy. The drives themselves in the northern regions are incredible. We drove on these tiny, winding roads through the mountains. Cows were grazing on the side of the roads and it felt very surreal. As we got closer to Purmamarca, the rocks in the mountains started changing colors- oranges, reds, greys, greens. When we got to Purmamarca, we couldn’t get over the incredible beauty. This small town was carved out of the vibrant rock. It reminded me of Pueblo Indian villages you would see in the southern US or Mexico. We loved our hostal because our shared room had a balcony that looked out onto the Cerro de siete colores. We did a short hike that took us behind town, through the mountains and up to the cerro. We sat on a hill, looking at all the beautiful colors, and drank a mate. Another highlight of Purmamarca was the artesan fair. Every day, vendors came to the town square and set up their booths selling all sorts of regional goods- llama and alpaca wool sweaters, socks, scarves, gloves, mate gourds, vibrantly colored textiles, weavings, woodwork, just to begin. We were able to entertain ourselves all afternoon just looking at all the interesting objects for sale. The people are beautiful as well- Purmamarca was the first place I had been to in Argentina where I really felt like I was in a whole different world, in Latin America. The indigenous traditions are still very much alive here.
That evening, after a delicious regional meal of llama steak, locro (a regional stew), pollo picante, empanadas, tamales, we went and watched some live music in a couple bars. The first group we saw played very traditional music- guitar and some regional flutes. We then saw a more modern group, which also sang, and played some music where people from the crowd got up and performed a dance that must be popular throughout the entire country.
The next day, we drove out to the Salinas Grandes, Salt mines. It’s a valley between the mountains, where a lake used to be. The lake dried up and left a crust of salt. It’s flat and white for as far as you can see, and it looks more like snow or sand than salt. The contrast of the white salt against the bright blue sky was amazing, and made for some stunning pictures. We had a delicious picnic, even using salt from the ground for our sandwiches, and then played around with our cameras for a while.