Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Hills Are Alive! Part 2: Mountains, Mountains, and more Mountains

Coming from the Berkshires, I´m all too accustomed to stunning mountain views, even if the mountains are modest in stature. During the summer the Berkshire Hills are beautiful, solid green masses surrounding our small towns. But the show really starts once autumn arrives, at which point Great Barrington is nestled between mountains sporting a mosaic of deep reds, oranges, and yellows, that make the season my favorite time of year to be home, especially while in school. It was always great to come back and drive the streets in my neighborhood, all lined with trees looking so alive with color even though their leaves are dying. I was sure other parts of the world had equally breathtaking foliage, but I knew i would always prefer that of the Berkshires.
However, the province of JuJuy, and the north of Argentina in general, bring new meaning to the hills being alive with color. These mammouth peaks, basically bare of trees but with an excess of cacti, are just as colorful as fall in the Berkshires thanks to their geological properties. Streaks of purple, green, red, orange, gold, yellow, blue, and gray, at times, simultaneously stretch across some of the taller mountains in the Andes. The hill of seven colors is the supposed highlight of this naturally occurring phenomena, but i enjoyed the views from the car as we drove to the salt flats even more. In Purmamarca we stayed at a campsite, in the most general sense of the term. The people weren´t incredibly friendly, but the plethora of lamb and llama stew, delicious empanadas, Uli, Gus, and amazing landscapes more than made up for the relative lack of onda.
Enough words, check out these photos:
Count the seven colors...in the dark.

Gold and green,

Purmamarca and part of the seven color hill in the background.


Wrinkly red rocks formations.


Multi-colored rocks.


The happy travelers, all safe and sound.

1 comment:

Shelley Rolf said...

wow ! thanks for the view.