A few days ago we returned from our 6-day trip through the Puna, the arid high plateau (all above 3500 masl) in Argentina’s northwest. Is was like travelling in another world, or on the moon, or on Mars. The landscapes are fantastic and very diverse, the Puna seems endless yet after every bend new scenery and colors and forms await the visitor.

The mountains have been formed mainly by wind – water is scarce in the Puna – and colored with thin layers of volcanic ash, small stones, and green and yellow tufts of grass. There are salt lakes, rock formations, mysterious petroglyphs, oases, sand dunes, sulphur and gold mines, volcanoes, animals, and small villages.