Salta Day Two – The Andes Mountains and Salinas

On our second day in Salta, we took a bus tour of the Andes Mountains and got to experience multiple climates in a short amount of time. On the side of the Andes that the city of Salta resides, the climate is humid and very rainy, while on the other side of the mountains there is a desert climate. Millions of years ago, the area where the Andes Mountains would be was covered with the ocean until earthquakes resulted in the Andes. Then the ocean somehow drained from the area and left pools of salt water at the foot of the mountains. IMG_4138However, due to the mountains’ altitude, they prevented moist winds from blowing over them, resulting in the salt-water pools evaporating over time, leaving the Salinas salt flats.

IMG_4073     On our first few stops, the weather was cold, cloudy, and humid and there was a dense layer of fog/clouds surrounding the mountains that we could see. The views we had of the mountains there were beautiful and I liked how due to the altitude, they actually seemed to reach the clouds. As we continued to drive to the other side of the mountains, the sky was suddenly blue and the sun shone. It almost felt like we had driven to a different country completely.

For the remainder of the drive our views remained the same, but they were still unbelievable. When we made it to the Salt flats in Salinas, the views were almost more breathtaking. The ground looked like it was covered in snow but it was actually a thick layer of salt left behindIMG_4118 by the ocean millions of years ago. I think this was my favorite stop on the tour because I loved the contrast the white salt brought to the mountain views in the background. Overall, this was by far my favorite day of the trip to Buenos Aires. I love the culture of this country, but the views we saw on the bus tour are hard to beat.

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