San Antonio de los Cobres

We continue on and stop for lunch in San Antonio de los Cobres, feeling straight out of the wild west. One of the tours we were offered stopped for the night here. We are quite glad that we decided against that option. After lunch, we head across the border into Jujuy province, and head for the giant salt flats of Salinas Grandes. Along the way, we see many vicuña, the wild animals (and endangered species), relatives of the llama and the camel, whose coats are the source of luxurious wool. Salinas Grandes turns out to be a huge salt lake, although the water is actually under the salt flats. The locals mine the salt by carving holes in the surface, which fill with the lake water and then evaporate, leaving the salt behind.