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Hey chicas! ok, next installment already, I really didnt expect to get so much done here, to see so much but this area is incredible. Yesterday we embarked on a tour up to San Antonio de los Cobres following the tracks of the well known (at least in Argentina) journey to the clouds. The tourist train is very expensive and the freight train turned out to take about a billion hours and is currently cancelled due to the crisis and lack of funds and cargo. So we took this tour and 6 of us jumped on a 4 wheel drive for the day. Torsten, the cool german and Mina the english girl and I were all together which was cool as these were the two I got on with the best. There was another german guy Michael and 2 Canadians dudes who from the first few minutes had us in stiches with their sharp banter and constant piss taking out of each others mothers! Anyway, from start to finish the tour was incredible, the car took us up the side of a mountain through the Quebrada de Toro, A Quebrada is like a canyon except that Canyons are caused by the rivers that flow thrugh them and Quebradas are caused by Geographical faults. Anyway, this first part was gorgeous, it really reminded me of Arizona, the red rocks torn away by millenia of weathering and formed into tall red pillars atanding side by side for miles creating what seemed to me like a kind of ancient city. Salta itself is in a valley between the Andes (which are divided into 2 ranges the east and the west) and the sub Andes. we were to cross the two andean ranges which were joined by a very high flat barren plateau, the Altiplano which here stands at about 3600 metres! Anyway, we stopped at a few indian villages which were so interesting, they were incredibly high up and apparantly survived only on subsistence farming, the landscape was changing all the way from a red rock desert with a little greenery caused by the river running through, to the slopes dotted with tall cacti to a dusty harsh arid landscape at the top. We peaked on the road at 4080metres high and everyone seemed to be affected but me and Mina who raced each other back to the car after a photoshoot to be followed by the boys a good few minutes later well out of breath. One of the canadians was freaking me out because not only looked identical to, but had the same sense of humour and manner about him as Steve, one of my Bristol boys from vegas, a great friend (who I nearly had a fling with just before I went to visit Stef in Denmark).It was uncanny the similarity! They all got really short of breath and tired but I seem to be one of the lucky few who is unaffected by altitude, this had happened before in a few other places where I was unaffected while peeople around me suffered! Anyway, we climbed up and down but mainly up and eventually came across a deserted indian city that had been abandoned long before the Incas arrived in 1400AD. The city had contained about 3000 people and was left asa pile of stones in the shapes of the houses in which they lived, nothing like we know it, just two very small rooms one outside and one in convered with a rood made from cactus wood which they took with them when they left. looking from the top it didnt seem like it could have been a city,more like kids had played at shops and had piled stones in ramdom order over a vast area, but very cool nonetheless. the interesting thing was that archaeologists had found artefacts from the coast and the jungle in this area indicating that this had been an important trade area! Soon we were at the Altiplano where we stopped for lunch and where the land flattened out into a scrubland punctuated with small brush and llamas, small houses were hidden in little dips and usually centred a manmade well, their only source of water 3 metres under ground. The villages were so tiny and so distinct from each other and apparantly the race remained pure...indicating to me a huge anount of inbreeding, nothing else existed up here and there was no reason for anyone to come here. I felt like I was in Bolivia rather that Argentina. Up in the main city (!) of San Antonia de los cobres (copper) little Indian kids dark faces and huge brown eyes would approach you, shyly at first and then a little more confident to ask for a little money or to try to sell you the handmade llamas they had made from wool. Right in the centre hugh rocks of shale jutted upwards splintering their shiny reds, greens and indigo pieces on the floor around and covered in llama shit, (which looked like larger balls of rabbit shit!) Then came the highlight of the day and bloody fuck...the point where I ran out of camera film! we crossed the altiplano and began circling a salt lake. From a distance it was like a shimmer of snow on the plateau and as we neared it was eerily quiet. The 4 wheel drive finally climbed the mud border and drove easily onto the salt, the product of an ancient prehistoric salt lake that had evaporated leaving this vast area (60 by 30kms wide) which had condensed into almost 99%pure sodium chloride. As soon as it was possible we stepped out of the truck, gingerly at first unsure as to what would happen beneath our feet but then more confidently and noone spoke. We were all awestruck, all experiencing this phenomena for the first time. The salt was pure white, flat and streched as far as the eye could see emphasising the colours of the cordillera (mountain ranges) in the background against the pure blue sky. The weirdest thing was that the salt had gathered itself, noone seemed to be sure why into mainly 5 sided formations, large hexagons, the more regular pattern being that the lines all met in threes, a tri meeting of saline. The ground below the salt was muddy and then below that there was still water. We drove a little further sitting on the roof of the car to where the salt was mined to see loads of square pools of dug out salt water sitting fresh and clear as anything and crytalised salt floating around in them. We all took little souvenirs to have with our BBQ that night and finally after much oohing and ahhing we left. On the other quebrada on the way down we could see just how high we had reached as we approached a long winding zigzag slope, the switchbacks raching all the way down to a valley so low it seemed to disappear into nowhere. Frozen waterfalls bordered the roadside and the chill was in us all. Far in the distance the polychrome moutains crossed each other, it was beautiful...and I had no bloody film! The final highlight of the day was the Purmamarca, the hill of 7 colours. All the way to this point the mountainside was coated with colours from different sediments raised by the still forming moutains...but they were nothing we realised when we appraoched this hill. We had all been chatting away and suddenly everyone gasped and hush fell over the car. The mountains, in parts red peaks as on the other side, the faultline visible all the way into the cordillera from this vantage point all around us were different colours, every colour of the rainbow and more were accounted for, tints and hughes of reds, purples, greens, blues, yellows everywhere...and then Purmamarca. A large red rock, bright, deep red pockmarked with rivulets around which we drove passing the purple hill on the other side and then form beyond, a hill of green rock, plantless and arid but so beautiful outstreched an arm on which was painted a band of colour, stripes stretched further around and seemed to be splattered in uniform lines like a childs paintbox. I was desperate for the loo at this point and left my viewpoint from the roof of the car to add some gold to the landscape! hahahaha Then we went home and started helping prepare a huge BBQ in which the wone was flowing and flowing and flowing....I got sooooooo pissed and feel like absolute poo today! alright on that note, I`ll love you and leave you ciao for now Em _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. |
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