Purmamarca is a small village in the province of Jujuy, north of Salta. Famous for its seven colors mountain, at Purmamarca, life goes on very quietly... I stayed one night at this little village, and I enjoyed it so much!
How is it possible for a single mountain to have 7 different colors!?... Causes and conditions allowed for it... millions of years ago, at the time the Andes were rising, and thanks to the formation of a river that brought different minerals at different times... The fact is that seeing this mountain, you don't know if it's a dream or just a painting... and you wonder how beautiful and magical the world can be...
When I was in Puerto Madryn, 15 days ago, I was walking around town with a group of people. One of them, an irish girl, suddenly picked up a dirty carton from the floor... and I asked her "what are you doing?". She replied "I like to leave the places I visit cleaner than when I arrive". 20 meters later, she threw the carton to a bin. I said "that is a really good attitude!" thinking if maybe I should do the same...
2 days later, still at Puerto Madryn, I was visiting on my own a remote part of town, when suddenly, the wind took a plastic bag from my pocket. The plastic bag flew away very fast, and I couln't catch it... Then I thought "here there are some people making this place cleaner, and I'm just making it dirtier!"... so I resolved to compensate it, thinking "next time I'll make a place cleaner!"
And that happened in Purmamarca... I had forgotted already my intention of Puerto Madryn, but it was there somewhere in my unconcious... I was walking in the square of town, which is just next to the beautiful mountain, when a big plastic bag crossed my way... flying in the direction to the mountain... Then, I knew perfectly what I had to do... so I turned back, walked fast and grabbed the plastic bag. I walked 10 meters with it, and threw it to a bin... Then, someone exclaimed "Bravo!!"... I was in front of a group of locals, who were sitting in a terrace. Then I continued my way, I didn't need any praise... the feeling of having done good was better than the best of praises...
And I felt incredibly good for the whole day... wondering how a little action, like that of the irish girl, can reach so far... it inspired me, in consequence maybe some locals at the terrace of Purmamarca would be inspired by it and be cleaner, or maybe they will be nicer to tourists... and for me, seeing by myself how happy you can feel with just so little good, maybe I will be more motivated to do good things in the future... it's amazing how far a little good action can go!.. and how far a good intention can go!
Purmamarca was magical... but those 10 seconds were even more magical... As Gandhi said, "Everything you do in life will be insignificant, but it's very important that you do it"
