I took my time leaving San Antonio de los Cobres yesterday morning. There was a quiet pleasure in starting slow, enjoying a few empanadas in the center of town, and hunting down enough fuel for the journey ahead. When I finally hit the road toward Salinas Grandes, I initially tried to maintain a gentle pace to soak in the landscapes, but the terrain had other plans. The washboard bumps on the dirt road were so strenuous that I found myself forced to accelerate. To mitigate the bone-shaking vibration, I had to push the bike to 70 or 80 kilometers per hour, skimming over the ridges rather than falling into them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Riding at that speed on loose dirt requires an immense amount of concentration. Every patch of deep sand and every cluster of stray stones demands your full attention. Along the way, I saw only three other riders, all struggling at a much slower pace. They were weighed down by hard luggage cases, which I really wouldn’t recommend for these types of technical roads. After three hours of intense focus, I finally reached the paved roads of Salinas Grandes. I was so overwhelmed with relief that I actually found myself screaming out loud with happiness just to feel the smooth surface beneath my tires again.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Upon arrival, I learned that visiting the piletas\u2014the small, turquoise salt pools\u2014requires a local guide. It is a well-organized community initiative designed to provide work for the local people. While the eight-dollar fee felt a bit steep for the region, the hour-long excursion offered a deep look into their way of life. Before the tour, I made a quick detour to find lodging in Pozos Colorados, an aboriginal community about eight kilometers down another dirt road. I dropped my heavy gear at the only available lodge\u2014a pricey but necessary spot at 50,000 pesos\u2014rested for five minutes, and headed back to the salt flats.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
My guide, Silvia, shared the fascinating process of how they manage the salt. They create these pools and leave the water to crystallize under the direct, harsh sunlight for an entire year, eventually extracting three to six tons of salt per pool. Walking through the area, I noticed several signs posted by the indigenous community protesting lithium extraction in the region, a stark reminder of the environmental tensions here. Despite the beauty, I usually find it difficult to take photos when I feel monitored by a guide, but the geometry of the salt flats is so striking that the drone photography was straightforward. I spent about fifteen minutes capturing bird\u2019s-eye views and diagonal compositions before the cold began to set in.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The temperature was dropping fast, and I\u2019ve reached a point where I\u2019m tired of being cold. I decided to skip the sunset at the main salt flats and began the slow ride back to my lodging in Pozos Colorados. The sun was dipping low, casting a soft, golden glow over the high desert. Just as I was about to pull into the garage, a massive flock of thirty or forty llamas began to stream through the village. I dropped my motorcycle right in front of the gate, grabbed my long lens, and followed them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The light was incredible\u2014a thick, yellowish haze that made everything look cinematic. Suddenly, one llama broke away from the group and climbed a small hill, standing perfectly still as if it were posing for the cover of a movie. It was a total Lion King moment. I knelt in the dirt, switching my camera to burst mode, and captured what I think is one of my favorite photos of the entire trip. It wasn’t just that they were animals in the landscape; they seemed to be genuinely chilling, enjoying the warmth of the ultimate sunlight just as much as I was. I felt truly blessed by the gods of travel in that moment, watching the llamas bask in the final glow of the day.<\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leaving San Antonio de los Cobres for the Dusty Road to Salinas Grandes I took my time leaving San Antonio de los Cobres yesterday morning. There was a quiet pleasure in starting slow, enjoying a few empanadas in the center of town, and hunting down enough fuel for the journey ahead. When I finally hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":334643,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[]},"country":[57],"social-trigger":[],"trip":[28277],"class_list":["post-334640","trip-journal","type-trip-journal","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","country-argentina","trip-ruta-40"],"acf":{"story_date":null,"story_draft":"","story_type":"","story_gallery":null,"story_video":"","story_location":null,"story_link":null,"story_year":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trip-journal\/334640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trip-journal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/trip-journal"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=334640"},{"taxonomy":"social-trigger","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/social-trigger?post=334640"},{"taxonomy":"trip","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trip?post=334640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}