Purmamarca is growing rapidly. It seems every week there is a new boutique hotel or restaurant (now an artensans mall also). It is also firmly fixed on the Hippy Trail in the North West which means that in Januarand February, it is crammed with bourgeois Porteno teens sporting dreadlocks for the summer and camping in private gardens.
Everyone comes to see the Hill of Seven Colours into which the pueblo is cradled. It's a nice 2-hour walk around the back of the hill, emerging on the other side of the town. What I make every effort to avoid when escorting visitors is the mass of tour buses letting people off for ten minutes.
Salinas Grandes - the Salt Flats - is a stunning 70km drive over the Cuesta de Lipan and there are more tour buses that will take you from Purmamarca. I don't understand why anyone would want to spend their trip stuffed into a minivan and let out at the rigidly proscribed spots for a fast snapshot.
Natural beauty needs to be enjoyed with solitude and with the right light for taking photographs. There is a gentle hill to climb above the pueblo and watch the seven colours change in the light.
And then it's back to the marketplace.
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