Salt, salt, salt! And mirages…

The colorful mountains, rocks, and canyons of Argentina’s Jujuy province have been explored, adored, and thoroughly photographed. Time to continue our South American adventure!…

And there are still plenty of must-sees, including: the Salinas Grandes salt flats:

These vast salt flats are seriously impressive.

And yes, you can explore them on bikes!

Some of the views are just spectacular:

Here they are on Google Maps and on Yandex Maps.

The road to the salt flats boasts fantastic views too:

…Well, not all of it – but there are some truly breathtaking stretches:

But about the roads here – I’ll save that for another time. For now – the salt flats…

Welcome to… Big Salts! ->

The parking lot features the usual souvenir stalls, plus picnic spots built from salt blocks:

Tourist infrastructure – the same as everywhere, really:

Time to explore!…

And we’re doing it by bike! ->

Salt flats are fascinating – visually, chemically, and ecologically. Just don’t try having a taste!

For the contemplative traveler this place is pure magic!

Look closely at this shot: there’s a mirage near the base of the mountain. It looks like a perfectly still lake – but it’s just shimmering air:

It’s salt, salt, salt – all the way down. Meters of solid salt, then a layer of super-saturated brine, then more salt.

And here we are ->

They offer bike tours here – highly recommended! You ride for about 6km, with stops, which takes up to two hours:

First stop: a small-scale industrial site where they extract that exotic substance known as… sodium chloride. Table salt! ->

These evaporation pools operate in a yearly cycle: once the salt is harvested, they refill the pools with brine, later dry them out to crystallize it, and a year later it’s harvest time again. Simple but effective.

And if you look around…

More mirages! ->

Stunning!

Time for some jumping photos:

Biking across Argentine salt flats: excellent idea!

As to the Ojo del Salar – the “Eye of Salt” – visiting it would have been nice; however, it turned out this salty, green spring and surrounding areas are sacred to the indigenous communities who’ve lived here for thousands of years. The area’s now off-limits to visitors: you can only see it by drone ->