Samuel picked us up again this morning – he’s been a great driver. Kris managed a whole sentence in Spanish asking for the transfer!
Today it is finally sunny here at Iguazu Falls, oh well. We flew to Salta via Buenos Aires. Same seats that Kris selected months ago – these planes are getting mighty familiar.
The drive from Salta to Purmamarca is about 3 hours. Our rental car is a spartan trim level Chevy Prism Joy that we have named Alegria (Spanish for Joy). 112 000 hard km and an econobox. This is an intermediate level car in the Altiplano of Argentina – not even a USB port to charge the phone while we use the gps (GoogleMaps is awesome!).
We had to drive *back* to Salta today because once we were settling in to the hotel room Dave realized his iPad was not in his backpack. Thank goodness for Apple products and the ability to find them online. It was in Salta, at the airport. So yeah, we drove back the next morning to get it. Moral of the story, check all your seat pockets when you deplane. Definitely a rookie move by Dave. He knows better!
We gradually drove uphill from Salta at 3800 feet to Purmamarca at 7625 feet. We are definitely feeling the altitude here. Walking up the flight of stairs to our hotel room is challenging!
We are staying at the Hotel Marquez de Tojo, reserved somewhat casually via WhatsApp. Welcome to a small village system. Our room is huge and amazing. Very rural but still awesome. The town is maybe 10 blocks by 6 blocks.
Purmamarca means ‘town of the lion’ in Quechua. Definitely in the altiplano of the Andes mountains.
The highlight of Purmamarca is the Cerro de los Siete Colores, the hill of 7 colours. Each colour is caused by a different mineral in the rock (more detail to come in a few days!).
The colours change depending on the time of day. We did a 3km walk on the Paseo de Colorado around the cerro.
Recently Dave has been taking shots specifically to use as Zoom/Teams backgrounds. He talks a lot online via video and he’s found this a good way to break the ice and start a conversation. We found quite a few new ones today.
Food in Argentina has been pretty good. We’ve found a lot of llama and quinoa which are local specialties. We do try to eat local as much as possible.
Tomorrow we go play with llamas and picnic in the altiplano.
Love the cactus flowers.
Did you mention barren!!!!!! Now you don’t need to go to the moon! Love, mom