Quebrada de Humahuaca, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, y Humahuaca

I took a tourist bus through La Quebrada de Humahuaca (pronounced oomawaka), I learned from the Cayafate trip that sometimes taking the tourist bus pays off because you get more out of what you´re seeing. First off, it stopped so that we could take our pretty pictures, and secondly our guide gave us some very interesting insight into this beautiful area.

La quebrada means the gorge and it separates 2 mountain ranges by the Rio Grande. The Rio, however, is not so Grande. In fact, its practically non existent. The river only comes from mid to late December to March...this is the mountain desert after all.

Our first stop was a small village called Purmamarca. This village has the beautiful painted mountains as a backdrop so heaps of tour buses stop there to take pictures. The mountain range from a white (limestone) to red (iron) to green (oxidized iron). The village also has an old church dating from 1778 which has some really cool cactus wood infrastructure..and a fantastic 700 year old tree just outside (well, they told me it was that old at any rate).

Onwards and upwards...The gorge itself is so breathtaking I kept taking pictures and finally had to come to terms with the fact that nothing could convey such massive beauty...(came to the same conclusion on my trip through the Uyuni province of Bolivia...)

That hole is the burial pit

Our next stop was Tilcara - here there were important archaeological digs which unearthed a village of the Humahuaca people, a pre-Inca civilization. At the site they had re-created the village so that we could see how these people lived. The poorer folks lived on the outside and the rich folks, higher up the hill...somethings never change - 10 to 1 the rich folks in your town live on the high points. Entire families would live in 3x2 sq/m with a courtyard outside, complete with family burial pit. The fantastic thing about these homes was that even though it was sweltering hot outside and there was no door on these places, the inside was quite cool. All the doors in the village faced either north or south, never in the direct path of the sun.


15 km outside of Tilcara we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn! WOOT! He had to hustle though because we had lunch reservations in Humahuaca...the bloody Pom and his German friend were 15min late coming back to the bus in Purmamarca...

AHHHHH what we had for lunch is to be saved for my next food update!!!

 

Humahuaca was a little bit bigger and the mountain folks were becoming more and more prominent. There´s an impressive statue dominating the hill here, its a celebration of the liberation of the Argentinian people. It was here that I started feeling the altitude -2 946m above sea level. When you exert a bit too much your heart begins to pound...its kinda like being out of breath but instead of just your lungs craving oxygen, your whole body is.

 

Just outside of Humahuaca there´s a fantastic little church built in 1661. When the Spaniards had this church built, they also commissioned local artists to paint pictures of angels. The locals had no idea what the heck an angel was so when they asked the question the answer they got was, "Well, they look like us, but with wings".  OK, seems straight forward enough. What the Spaniards got was angel paintings of them in all their Spanish glory: stylish fine lace, fashionable brocade, coiffed hair, breeches, wings....and of course guns.
Priceless. Sadly, I was not allowed to take pictures, so you´ll have to take my word for it (I can´t make up stuff this good, I assure you!)

Instead of going back to Salta with the rest of the group, I asked that they drop me back off at Tilcarra....which is where I had my next adventure...