Crossing the high altiplano from Chile's Atacama Desert to Purmamarca, Argentina

crossing the altiplano high above the Atacama Desert

Today we drove across the high Andes from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile to Purmamarca, Argentina.  At our high point we were just over 15,800 feet and spent most of the drive between 13,500 and 15,000 feet.  It is a spectacular drive, starting with the climb from the Atacama to the passes in between the huge volcanoes towering over 19,000 feet.  There was little snow on the peaks because Chile is so dry that neither rain nor snow falls, even in the high mountains.

high, barren desert at 15,000 feet on Chilean side

On the Chilean side of the border, the altiplano is mostly barren, though the volcanoes have grass growing to at least 16,000 feet on their western flanks.  Head further east, though, and the volcanic rock changes, leaving the area devoid of vegetation.  As we continued east, across very high valleys, the volcanoes receded and the mountains, still over 16,000 feet, became more contorted from tectonic shifts in the earth.  Here, we began to see salt-rimmed lakes, bushes and grass as well as vicuna and llamas.

lakes and vegetation at high altitude as we drove east

All the llamas are owned by someone, primarily Andean Indian families, and are marked with tassels in their ears or sometimes paint on their hips (which doesn’t wash off because there is no rain).  They are beasts of burden, but also provide meat and hides to their owners.  Outside most of the Andean houses we saw today were piles of llama hides.

We reached the border about 9:15 in the morning and didn’t leave until 10:45.  If you go across the border between Puerto Montt and Bariloche, where there is just a shack with one person staffing it, you can get across in 15 minutes.  There must be something about the remote and very high border crossing we encountered today that requires excessive bureaucracy because it took a ridiculously long time. 

the ever-present llamas

There were 3 Chilean agents who had to approve us and our van leaving the country and more on the Argentine side to welcome us to Argentina.  And, the van and our driver and guide are already returning to Chile so it’s not as if they are going to overstay their visas.  Once all the paperwork was completed, we still had to have the car searched before we could get on our way.  I think this small bevy of officials has too little to do, though there were several dozen trucks

salt flats above Purmamarca

also trying to get across.

Once in Argentina, we crossed a large salt flat where great mounds of salt have been piled up, awaiting transport to a processing plant.  This appears to be a fun family outing as many families were playing on the salt flat, tasting the water in the evaporation ditches and enjoying the cool sunshine at 13,000 feet.

The road down to Purmamarca is long, very steep and very windy, with hairpin curves that almost completely double back on one another.  The uplifted rocks give the mountains a multitude of beautiful colors, which we are about to go out and inspect as we have now arrived in Purmamarca.  Many of the cliffs are conglomerate, so have eroded into giant pinnacles crowded together to make heavily indented cliffs.  Rain is obviously much heavier here than across the mountains because there are large, dry rivers that have clearly carried large amounts of rushing water and deeply eroded gorges of many colors.

the moon above the altiplano