Day 84 : Humahuaca

Humahuaca is located up North from Salta, 120km past the town of Jujuy and stands at 2,940m above sea level.  Due to the distance, this was a much longer tour than Cachi and Cafayate and so we set off at about 7.30am and returned at about 8.30pm.

The tour today was a really big group of about 17 people in total (in contrast with 4 for Cafayate and 7 for Cachi), and we spent the first 3hrs mainly driving with hardly any stops, past beautiful coloured mountains – the main characteristic of landscape around this area. 

Purmamarca and the 7 coloured mountains

Our first stop, the infamous 7 coloured mountains of Purmamarca.  The variety of colours is the product of accumulation of sediments in the nautical and continental watersheds for some 600 million years.

We made our way to the town of Purmamarca, a few minutes away from where we had stopped to take pictures of the 7 coloured mountain.  There are lines of shops, with many individual vendors all selling similar things around the main square.  It is a good place to buy scarves and winter wear e.g.. gloves, wool sweaters and alpaca wool items, and fairly cheap too. 

I briefly browsed through their merchandise and wonder how they compete with the other vendors next to them when their products are almost exactly the same as the store next to theirs with similar prices across the stores too.  It is no fun looking at shops and not being able to buy anything, knowing that you should not be adding any extra weight to your luggage!

So I walked around the town and climbed the nearest hill which gave a good view of the town and the surrounding mountain regions around it before heading back to the coach to find everyone coming back with bags of merchandises!  Seemed everyone had done some good shopping! 

Tilcara

We headed next to Tilcara and visited the Pucara de Tilcara (Fortress of Tilcara).  This is a really must see when in Tilcara, as you see the way of life of the Tilcaras, and their houses made of stones, which was amazingly cooling in the day despite the hot weather outside. 

At the top of the hill is a Turkish Pyramid that was built in honour of them and wonderful views could be seen at the top.

Humahuaca

We arrived in Humahuaca and had a late lunch at restaurant El Fortin, which came with a live performance.  It was extremely packed when we arrive and I had one of my best meals in Argentina so far, eating all different types of food for the 1st time, and at really reasonable prices.

For starters, I opted for Quinoa.  Tasted delicious!  I later found out how the raw Quinoa looked like, which seemed like a type of seed or cereal type item, and sometimes could be popped into a version of popcorn.

For mains, I decided to try llama meat cooked in Milanese style.  Tasted like pork, but sweeter and more tender.  Yummy!

 

 

And lastly dessert, I opted for goat cheese with honey made from sugarcane.  It is an interesting combination, though felt the goat cheese could be better.

 

We later walked around the town of Humahuaca, again characterised by a lot of side street vendors selling similar things to what could be found at Purmamarca, and also small guitars, jewellery and other handicrafts. 

There was also a famous monument in this town, that was built in memory of the people who went to war.  I can’t remember the details, only remember that there are 103 steps to the top of the monument which represents the 103km travelled.

There was a cemetery at the back of this monument which I briefly walked in and what I found interesting was that the flowers and wreaths offered were extremely multi-coloured!

Everyone got back on to the bus with bags of things again!  Major shopaholics!

Painters Brush

We headed back down towards Salta and stopped at a place called Painters Brush.  It is so named because of the formations and colours on the mountains.

Jujuy

We did a brief stop at Jujuy.  It was a really small town and the main attraction seems to be a church and a museum which was supposed to contain the very 1st flag of Argentina, but was closed for renovation when we were there. 

I am quite glad that I did not stay in Jujuy as originally planned and decide to make Salta my base instead.  Salta is definitely much more bustling and more interesting than some of the other towns that we had visited during my day trips to Cafayate, Cachi and Humahuaca over the last few days.