Tilcara may not be the biggest town in the quebrada de Humahuaca, but it is one of the main tourist hubs. It was easy to find a restaurant and I enjoyed stewed llama the night we arrived. We walked around the square for a bit, with souvenir stalls on every side. Tonight we stayed in a hospedaje, in a private room. The bathroom was the kind that gets completely wet during a shower, but we only stayed one night anyway. The view from the roof terrace was amazing though. We were surrounded by red mountains. We only had an hour or so of light left when we arrived, but the next day we went to see some of the town’s attractions.
There were people in this area long before the Spanish set foot on this continent. There were people even before the Inca came down from Cuzco. In the Pucará at Tilcara they’ve uncovered and partially rebuilt some houses, workshops and other buildings of the indigenous people that used to live there. It was once a thriving town and during the Inca reign products made here were transported all the way to Cuzco. We paid the hefty entry fee and first entered the adjacent botanical gardens. There were different cacti, other plants, rocks, like a bright yellow onyx, and a paddock with some llamas and guanacos. They were all happily munching on some hay and grass. Seeing them next to each other it was somewhat easier to see the difference. The llamas had a much thicker coat on them.
The Pucará itself lies on a hill, so we first dragged our feet to the top, where we found a strange-looking monument. It didn’t fit at all. Neither in shape, nor in building materials. Apparently the text on the monument even provides misinformation about the indigenous population. It was put there to honor the archeologists. A bit ironic that they had to remove some of the historic buildings to create space for the thing. Monument aside, the view over the valley was incredible. On our way back down we walked through the former town. You can enter some of the houses. The roofs were made with cactus wood. There were plenty of cacti around. We saw some where the wood was a bit exposed, a dying cactus. The wood has a really nice pattern and is also used for decorations and souvenirs.
After the archeological site we tried to find a supermarket to buy a picnic lunch. The first one we entered had such a bad smell that our appetite disappeared. It lingered in my nose for way too long. Luckily we found what we needed in the second market and then started driving uphill over a small and winding road. It was scary. We were basically hoping we wouldn’t get any oncoming traffic. But slowly we reached the top, passing a huge puppet of a football player. Amazingly people want to live this high up a road that’s mainly used to get tourists to the trail of Garganta del diablo. Before walking, we had our lunch, sitting at some rocks near the edge of a cliff. There was a small entry fee to access the trail, which started going downhill over some steps. It split into 2 options and I decided we’d go left, to the waterfall. It took a while of walking through a dry river bed and into a smaller canyon to reach the falls. Occassionally we had to cross the river. The waterfall itself wasn’t terribly impressive, but the walk was once again beautiful. We took the same way back and then followed a path next to a water channel. It led to a view of the other side, before climbing back up the steps and to the car.
We said our goodbyes to Tilcara, after zigzagging down the tiny road again. We wanted to go a little further into the quebrada de Humahuaca. On the way we saw a building with a huge llama statue in front. There was also a pen with some real llamas. Of course we had to take a look. A man at the llama door was super eager to get us inside. It turned out to be a factory for ceramics and they had a huge shop. You could get dishes, bowl and souvenirs for very good prices. Since I didn’t trust myself to travel another month or so with a stack of bowls, I got a small painted plate representing the air. It wasn’t far to Humahuaca, where we were greeted by some tourist helpers. I’m not sure how official they are, since they mentioned 4 things you could do in town and then recommended we didn’t drive up to the famous rainbow mountain, but rather paid for a trip in a 4×4. It sort of worked. We were doubting ourselves. Could it be worse than the road this morning? We decided to go for a walk around town first. There was a big souvenir market around the square and we found some ice cream. Then we decided to just do it.
During the drive we were practically waiting for the hard part to start. Yes, we’d be ascending to over 4000m. Yes, it was steep and a gravel road. Yes, we could only go so fast. But the road was wide and we were relieved to see other regular cars come down. The scary part never came. At the top we parked at a view over a mountain in the distance with many colors: Hornocal. It was as if someone had painted stripes on the mountain. There was another viewpoint a little bit downhill. There were also some vicuñas grazing there. Getting there was fine, but it was a little struggle to get back up to the car. The view is supposed to be nice for sunset, but we didn’t want to drive down in the dark. And we had to drive back beyond Tilcara, to a small town called Maimará, where I’d found us a cute b&b. It was very colorful and decorated with flowers, plants, dream catchers and much more. It seemed like a happy witch’s cabin. Freek and I had a walked around town and picked up some dinner. The next morning we had breakfast on plates shaped like leaves and colorful mugs with prints on them.
On the final full day of our road trip we headed to the Salinas Grandes with a stop in Purmamarca. Purmamarca was very touristy, with again a huge market of souvenirs. Ladies were selling filled tortillas from the bbq. The town lies at the foot of a 7 colored mountain. It makes for a very nice picture, the pastel colored houses with the pastel colored mountain. More surprising were the views from the road to the salt flat. We had to climb over a snaking road called cuesta de Lipán to 4170m. Besides epic views, we saw vicuñas and wild donkeys on the descent to the Salinas Grandes. We saw the field of white in the distance. Through it goes a straight road, the road through the Andes to Chile. At the start of this straight stretch stood a man waving for people to get onto a parking lot from where you could visit the salt flat. Later we found out there was another parking lot further on. At this first one we couldn’t just enter the salt flat. Instead you had to pay for a guide, who would drive out on a motorbike. We followed in our car, with another car behind us.
Our guide Antonia first brought us to some dug out canals. There, they can get the salt out of the water. The deeper layer is used for industrial purposes, whereas the top salt gets transported to Paraguay, where it is made ready for consumption. We took some pictures, including some funny poses, and then moved on to the ojo, a natural pool. The water was so still, it showed perfect reflections. I must admit I didn’t understand the details about salt extraction and why there is a never-ending supply, but it was still cool to see and fun to play with. We had to drive the long, but beautiful road back and spent our last night in Jujuy. I didn’t see anything of the city, but we cooked a nice pasta and then watched Netflix on the TV in our private dorm.
We had one more decision to make. We could take the big highway back to Salta, or take the scenic mountain road through the yungas with mixed reviews. “Don’t take this dangerous road. Only one car fits on it.” “This route is incredible. Don’t miss out!” We weren’t sure what to believe and decided to check it out for ourselves. We left with plenty of time to take it easy. And wow, what a road! We snaked through the mountains on what was indeed a small road. On some corners really only one car could fit. But we saw about 10 cars heading the other way. The rest of the traffic consisted of pigs, horses and other animals. The yungas are like a jungle and at times we got some nice views through the bushes. On the other side of the forest we reached an area of Salta with a lot of vacation complexes. No more jungle. Slowly the landscape became more city-like. And then we reached the end of our adventure. Our white car was red from dust and sand. The guy at the rental company did a really quick inspection and then we loaded our bags into an Uber. It had been fabulous!
