Tolar Grande, in the heart of the Salta Puna, stands as a magical place, surrounded by salt flats, lagoons, mountains and volcanoes, with amazing and fantastic landscapes that, due to their reddish tones, resemble Mars, and among its main attractions are the Cono de Arita, the Ojos de Mar and the Llullaillaco volcano. Salta always seduces people from Río Negro and Neuquén and for the long weekend, with Hot Sale underway, it invites.
“Upon reaching Tolar Grande, one finds a magical place, in the heart of the Puna, with a unique landscape that gives the sensation of being on Mars,” the mayor of that town in Salta, Sergio Villanueva, explained to Télam, adding that, moreover, it is a place where one can “charge with energy.”
To get there from Salta it is necessary to take route no.national route 51, cross the town of Campo Quijano and the imposing Quebrada del Torountil you reach San Antonio de los Cobres, and then take Provincial Route 27, which leads to Tolar Grande after crossing the Salar de Pocitos and the red Devil’s Desert.
It’s a little town of 300 inhabitants, located next to the tracks of the C14 branch of the General Belgrano railway, in an eminently mining area in the Los Andes department of Salta, 357 kilometers from the provincial capital and at about 3,500 meters above sea level.
“Here we have long circuits and short circuits to do. Among the lengths, the Cono de Arita stands out, which is the most visited and world-renowned and is located in the Salar de Arizaro, the third largest in the world,” said the mayor.
The Cono de Arita is a natural pyramid located about 80 kilometers from Tolar Grandein a desert area that is characterized not only by metal, onyx, marble and salt mining operations, among other minerals, but also by its particular natural beauty and its fantastic Puno environment of tranquility and silence.
In addition to being a point highly chosen by tourists and nature lovers who come to Salta, it is believed that this mysterious formation was a sacred place for pre-Inca civilizations.
This almost perfect conical geoform emerges as an island in the imposing salt flat, which has an area of 1,600 square kilometers and is located at 3,460 meters above sea level.
The cone, which is formed by salt and black lava and whose name in Aymara means sharpsharp, constitutes a striking landscape, with an elevation of about 150 meters, and its top is about 3,689 meters above sea level.
The mayor also cited other attractions in the area, such as La Casualidad, which is the camp of “a sulfur mine abandoned at the time of the process and which has many visitors”and the Llullaillaco volcano, where in 1999 the bodies of three children cryopreserved for more than 500 years were found at some 6,700 meters.
Among the short circuits, Villanueva mentioned points such as El Arenal and Ojos de Mar, which “is three kilometers from the town”, and he recalled that “stromatolites, which are living organisms that generate oxygen and are also a great attraction” were found there.
Ojos de Mar is barely three kilometers from the town, in a protected provincial area, also in the Salar de Arizaro. They are small and deep lagoons of volcanic origin, with water four times saltier than the oceanic water and a color between turquoise and green, which transforms the site into an oasis in the middle of the rugged Puna.
In addition to the tourist interest that they arouse, these lagoons attract scientists from all over the world, due to the unique ecosystem that they constitute, in which in 2009 the Argentine biologist and Conicet researcher, María Eugenia Farías, found living stromatolites, microorganisms capable of photosynthesis and oxygen production, which appeared 3.5 billion years agogiving rise to life on earth.
“What characterizes Tolar Grande, mainly, is the quality and warmth of its people, who always expect the best for those who visit us, in addition to its landscapes and customs,” Villanueva said in Télam.
Go to sata from Neuquén or Bariloche and take advantage of Hot Sale
The province of Salta is one of the main options chosen by tourists who hire trips. For example, for Easter through the Booking and Despegar platforms. VYou can choose it to visit it on the long weekend of May 25 and take advantage of the Hot Sale discounts.
There are direct flights connecting Neuquen and Salta in two and a half hours, with flexible dates, it can be obtained from around $56,282 (one way on Flybond on May 24 and return on May 28 on JetSmart), the secret is to make suitable combinations.
In Bariloche, Aerolíneas Argentinas started the direct flight with Salta two years ago and now the operation will return in July, with a weekly frequency.
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