Purmamarca's Rainbow Mountain in Northern Argentina

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Purmamarca has everything you need in a small town: cute plaza, friendly people, good food, wide variety of places to stay, interesting culture and spectacular landscapes.

This blog (and all my blogs) is on my website with lots more photos.

I went to Purmamarca for its famous hike around the hills behind town, which they call Rainbow Mountain. Having seen Cusco’s Rainbow Mountain and the Painted Hills in Oregon, I wanted to see how this one compared. It’s so completely different that I don’t think it can be compared.

The hike is a simple walk and there is a road for those who don’t want to walk. You can do it in half an hour if you are just there for the walk. If you want to stop along the way for photos, give yourself an hour. There is very little uphill and no altitude to speak of, which makes it very different from the Rainbow Mountain near Cusco.

Walking around town and along the Rainbow Mountain trail, I saw only smiling faces and people enjoying vacation. It was relaxed and felt very much like a tourist town with no trouble in paradise. Only on my way out of town did I notice the murals protesting mining.

In nearby Salinas Grandes there are massive deposits of lithium. If industrial mining were allowed, it would make the region uninhabitable and much less fun to visit. Processing lithium requires vast amounts of water and in a desert region, that would quickly use and pollute all available water. There would be no drinking water for residents, or tourists. The pollution would likely drive away all wildlife and destroy the delicate ecosystem.

As long as the environmentalists in Argentina hold strong, Purmamarca will remain a tourist haven. If the powerful global lithium industry wins, this cute little town may dry up and blow away.

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Photos

Rainbow Mountain "Hike"
The "hike" is an easy half hour walk along the road or a single track trail that cuts closer to the mountain, but still parallels the road most of the way.

Purmamarca
This is the main street in tiny Purmamarca. In two blocks you can walk from the main road that passes by town to the plaza, where the green trees are. The plaza is a pleasant oasis of shady green in a very orange and very hot desert.

Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Purmamarca
Breathtaking vistas I first learnt of from watching The Dakar Rally on TV when it was in South America. How lucky are you to have been there! Lithium -v- tourism? Great question but predictors of what is the bigger dollar that may not be so great for the ecology of the area. Thanks for sharing, Heather. This pic definitely heading for "Majestic Mountains" thread in the Photography Forum. Check it out.

[Ezeur]

Precedents for Argentina's Environmental Protections
Lithium might be a powerful global industry, but so is the salmon farming industry and a small community in southern Argentina managed to fight them off. Here's hoping the people of Salinas Grandes can defend their land and water rights. If a new method of processing lithium without polluting the water supply were developed, I bet the lithium mines would meet less protest.