On Saturday we went to Salinas Grandes, which is salt flat, located in the provinces of Salta and Jujuy.  It is around 240 km² and was a lake thousands of years ago that has since dried up and is now about a ½ km thick chunk of salt.  There were also pools of water in the salt that are occasionally excavated to help separate the minerals from the salt.

  It was a very beautiful sight to see and was one of the most beautiful places in Argentina that we have visited.  The light colors of the salt contrasts to the blue of the sky / water and the dark mountains in the background.

  We stayed there for about half an hour and took lots of pictures and then had some time to buy crafts.  There were venders selling sweaters that were made of llama fur, llamas and other figures made out of chunks of salt, llama keychains and all other things llama.

To get there we had to go through a lot of little villages which each had their own vendors selling everything llama.  We even had the opportunity to take pictures with two llamas.  We also went through many beautiful landscapes.  We stopped at a lot of different villages and other spots to take pictures and to soak in the beauty.  One of the other beautiful things was the many mountains that had different colors such as red, pink, blue/green, brown, grey, yellow and other mixes of colors that are made from oxygen reacting to different minerals.

On Friday, we had an early start to catch our 6:50 am flight to Salta. Our guide, Pablo, picked us up at the airport in Salta and started to introduce us to the area. We first went to a protected rainforest area. There, we were able to hike around and explore the beautiful scenery.

We then dropped our stuff off at the hotel and started a walking tour of the city. Pablo explained many of the important colonial architectural aspects of city. He also pointed out some places we might want to eat or shop during our stay.

We visited the San Framcisco Catholic Church. The building was colorful and displayed influences of Italian architecture. Inside there were many altars dedicated to various saints and a beautifully decorated rotunda.

We explored the center city square as well. The cabildo building (pictures below) is now a museum. The tower was an addition to the building and part of the building was destroyed to build a statue of Francisco Alvarez de Toledo and an additional town square.

On the main city square, we went to the Museum of Archeology (MAAM). The exhibits were focused on indigenous artifacts that had been discovered in Salta providence. These included pottery, tools, and cloth. There were also remains that were preserved in a mummy-like state of indigenous children. These children were found in the mountains near Salta.

We then had some time to catch up on sleep at the hotel before having dinner.