The Secret of the Eyes

My travel treasure is Ojos del Campo (The Eyes of the Land), in Argentina's extreme Northwest. They are located in Antofalla, “the place where the Sun dies”, but for the time being there is no sign that such an event may be about to happen.

Twelve miles after Salar de Antofalla, a 163-km long salt plain, the vision is forced to change and readapt: what some time ago looked like an insignificant hill is now a mountain on a multicolor desert.

On my journey back, I pick up Berta, an inhabitant of this desert. She is silent, but after some minutes begins to speak about her childhood. “I didn’t know what it was to play a game”. She had no running water nor electricity. And grew up with a family mandate: the Eyes are evil, and you should steer clear of them.

The ‘eyes’ were Ojos del Campo: three lagoons with different colors where animals get tempted by the water, slip down because of the salt, get trapped and die. Walking around them makes you feel kind of like astronauts. The Sun and the Moon, large and facing each other, guard these circular mirrors glistening in salinized shades of blue, orange, green, pink. If you tread firmly, you leave a print just like Neil Armstrong.

Although it does not seem to be a lifesustaining environment, in 2009 an Argentinean biologist found stromatolites, microorganisms specialized in transforming carbon dioxide into oxygen. They were the first to be found alive at over 3,500 meters high, and a great hint for those seeking solutions to global warming.

Right now, my more immediate concern is to strive for this fierce dust storm not to lift me of the ground. I cannot find any explanation, until I
remember that a few hours ago a very widely-traveled cattle driver passed away: as legend goes, the wind will endeavor to wipe his footprints.