Piper and crazy eyes head home

  

                                                  We've looked better.

Tomorrow is our last day in Argentina. It has gone fast and AL and I are still on speaking terms. We plan on visiting the Museum of Modern Art and Evita's grave. Our plane leaves at 9 PM and will be in route for 13 hours.

We arrive Wednesday morning.....I hear there is a parade for us.

Asta la vista Argentina.

Cue the duck boats

       

I wore the patriot shirt all day that Beth gave me for Christmas, sure that it would bring good luck. I am sure Ryan had his puffy jacket out too. We had ESPN in our hotel room so AL were confident we could see the game....Then there is a always live streaming......then there is always digital radio so there shouldn't be a problem.

We got a bottle of Malbec and settled in. When game time came ESPN had the game in Spanish. Again, I wish I had studied more. We tried to get it streaming but I think the system was on overload. We tried to get it on radio but again no luck. Katy Perry was in English. I am not sure what language Missy Elliot was in. Finally, in the fourth quarter, I found a BBC radio station that was doing play by play with about a five second delay. Interesting hearing a "Brit" explaining american football. 

All ok though, being able to see and hear the last minute of a great game and see the celebration afterward............priceless. 

                                                           PS the old logo is the best

Rain forest road route 9

Heading back to Salta we decided to take a route that went through a rain forest area of the Andes. The road was very very narrow. At  some of the switchbacks only one car could pass at a time. The road I grew up on was wider. The road cut through lush forest where there was a lot of cattle farming. The cattle just wandered along the side if the road grazing. It was a beautiful ride.

We arrived back in Salta around 5:00. We head back to Buenos Aires on Monday and hope we can watch the Super Bowl somewhere Sunday night.

Purmamarca

This is probably the most picturesque town of the Humahuaca Gorge. It sits at the foot of the well known Cerro de los Siete Colores ( mountain of seven colors for my non Spanish speaking friends)  the name of the town means "town in the desert"

This means nothing to me but it will to my son the geologist. 

 

Click on this link below to see video

http://youtu.be/6ypFEswjYMA

Searching for my last shaker of salt......salt......salt

Borax is the commercial name for boron salt which is mined near the salt flats. Borates were formed from thermal water rich in boron that was split in salty lakes. Those lakes existed 14 million years ago in Puma. Due to the reserves of these deposits the region is the third most important in the world , after Turkey and the US.

The great salt flats are made up of a perfectly horizontal thick salt layer which covers 1500km2 of terrain. The salt workers extract the salt which basically contains sodium chloride, mixed with small quantities of sulphate and calcium chloride. The task consists in obtaining ground salt to be commercialized in all the country and also to make rectangular salt "blocks" to sell and barter with the domestic cattle farmers. Salt is extracted through three different methods. Digging pools, raking the surface  or cutting salt blocks or bricks.  The pools are dug up to the level of underground water and the brine is left to crystallize due to over saturation. Thus highly pure sodium chloride is obtained. To obtain blocks the crust is cut off with sharp axes, since it is as hard as granite.

Tap on this link below to see video of  the ride back 

http://youtu.be/6MRSXylpQnY.    

The great salt flats

We left Tilcara and head for what we thought was going to be a leisurely drive to the salt flats.  We drove though a canyon and up, up up, up the side of the Andes. There were so many switch backs . The vistas were breathtaking. Every turn a new terrain to look at. This was even more spectacular than the Valle Grande. When we reached the peak ( seriously like driving to the top of the Alps) we started heading down and off in the distance we could see a white lake. It took us another 45 minutes to reach it but WHOW it was beautiful.

Look closely you can see a car on the road

Everybody was trying to do an optical illusion picture.......except AL and I. We've looked better.

They cut these pools to harvest the salt

Tilcara

We spent the night in Tilcara. Another very old village with mostly dirt roads. Here, as with everywhere we have gone there are tons of loose dogs. They are very docile and just lay around anywhere they can find a spot. Because they sleep all day you can hear them all over the town from 2 - 4 in the morning fighting. There is also the problem of excrement.......watch your step. We stayed in a nice hotel cottage was on the mountain side and a bit of a challenge for our car to get up. Here is a picture from our hotel patio

I also did a painting in the center of town ........it's not done but it's close so I'll post it because it's probably the last chance I'll get to paint.

So it needs a sky and the flowers and door lantern need more definition. The door needs to get straightened and the pots on the left need to not look like their bleeding.............they all can't be winners but I have enjoyed trying to paint various sciences along the way. They will make nice memories for me.