Purmamarca - Walking In A Painting

For our last full day in Purmamarca, it was all about colourful mountains - not that we had seen them already yesterday. But today would turn out to be next level. Starting the day, we walked just a couple of minutes outside of town to start a 1h or so loop around the colourful mountain that we had already seen yesterday.

At the beginning of the loop, the colour of the mountain was mainly red and looked and felt like clay. It was also drizzling a little bit, which gave a kinda eerie atmosphere, but unfortunately it meant the colour wouldn't be out in full force compared to when the sun shines on them. We still made the very best out of it and half way through the loop, the drizzle stopped. The views at this point were impressive, but not spectacular. That would change the moment we turned a corner roughly around 60% of the loop.

All of a sudden, a small valley opened up in front of us. Not only that, but there was a burst of colour from the green plants in the valley, and surrounding mountains with colours that quite literally had 50 shades of earthy tones. It felt to me as if we were about to walk in God's paintbox. It was magnificent.

Dad and I took a lot of time to appreciate the place, explore around, take pictures and marvel at the different colours - especially once we had made it down into the small valley. The trek was called 'Montana de Siete Colores', i.e. mountain of the seven colours, and I could see why - although in earnest there were more than just seven colours I think. Truly spectacular and 100% worth the loop!

Once we made it back to town, we jumped into the car to drive to what is probably the most stunning place in northern Argentina - even more so than the salt flats. To get there, it was about a 2h drive but we made multiple stops for viewpoints to look at mountains displaying multiple colours. This region really is absolutely beautiful and not like anything I have seen before - Peru comes close, but only has a few colourful mountains. By contrast, Jujuy has an entire region of it.

To get to our destination, we, again, had to drive up a mountain. Except this time, there was no paved road and the entire path was just gravel. At some point I could not use more than the first or max second gear to drive up (to be fair, we didn't have a 4x4 SUV and our car was coughing a lot, but brought us up there). When we were at the entrance, however, our car needed a brake. More precisely, we had a flat tire. Luckily, we had a spare one in the trunk, so we quickly changed the tire and drove to our destination at an elevation of 4350m above sea level.

The amazing place I am talking about is called ‚Serrania de Hornocal‘ in Humahuaca and might as well be among the most beautiful non-snow-capped mountains I have ever seen in my life. Imagine not just one rainbow mountain, but 7 or 8 right next to each other. Even the sun peaked through parts of the clouds to illuminate a part of those mountains to bring out the full effect of the colours. From all shades of yellow, to green, to red, brown, the mountains were bursting with colours. I thought I was looking at a painting, but instead I was walking in one. I never would've thought that nature can create something as truly magnificent and awe-inspiring as this. The view was otherworldly for sure.

This together with the Fitz Roy lookout were certainly my most favorite views in all of Argentina. We, of course, sat down and soaked in the views, still amazed by how such things can exist. We took loads of incredible pictures, but they don't do reality justice. I was stunned the entire time and could've stayed there for hours and looked at it.

However, rain was starting to come in. We waited until really the last second to get up and return to our car. It was right timing, as just as we reached the car, a downpour battered the area. Lucky us. Dry and full of incredible memories.

On the way back to Purmamarca, we made a quick pit stop at the Tropic of Capricorn and another viewpoint before arriving at our accommodation to rest and pack for the next day.Read more