Andean Charm

We were on our way North towards the Bolivian border and our first stop enroute was perhaps not the best choice. The town was called Jujuy (pronounced Choo-Chooey, with the ch as in Scottish Loch) and was described in the guidebook as the starting point for some of the country's most spectacular scenery. Well I would say it is beyond Jujuy and you don't really need to stop there. We found a room right by the bus station and had a little look around the town. There was a market selling all sorts and quite a nice plaza but being a Saturday afternoon it was deserted. For dinner we found a restaurant by the market and had the most cholesterol raising meal I think I have ever consumed, mainly due to the size. Adam and I shared it but it still defeated us, which I think was probably for the best. It consisted of breaded chicken, covered in ham, and cheese with two fried eggs on top and a mountain of chips on the side. We both felt a little rotund when we headed for bed.

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The next morning we continued further north and entered the Quebrada de Humahuaca; a vast gorge of immense natural beauty, not only due to its magnitude but also the vivid colour of the rock. Our destination was the small town of Tilcara which has real charm. There is definitely a touristy vibe and considering its size the number of hostels is quite surprising. Despite this it manages to maintain a feeling of Andean authenticity without becoming a parody of itself.

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For example we enjoyed some traditional music at lunch time, including a rendition of The Sound of Silence on the pan pipes.

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Which may sound cheesy but it wasn't and when they're not being played in Mell Square or some other English city centre then the pan pipes are actually ok, that said we still didn't buy their cd at the end.

We were staying in a tiny little hostel run by a slightly dishevelled man in his late twenties who seemed to be continuously on the computer. If he'd been more communicative I would have liked to have known how he ended up running the place, as he and the town seemed like a very unlikely fit.

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Later in the day we went for a little walk to the outskirts of the town to get a better look at the surrounding landscape as the sun began to set.

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The rock faces, which are heavily indented as if with the winkles of age were transformed by the lengthening shadows. When you have been looking at beautiful surroundings all day, you begin to get used to them, obviously you still appreciate them but it is difficult to maintain a continuous sense of awe. However when the sun begins to set everything changes and you have to begin the process of soaking up beauty again. We have done that in a lot of places around the world and Tilcara was added to the list.

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The next day we had breakfast and decided we would back track a little to the town of Purmamarca, a village about 30 minutes back towards Jujuy. On the way to the catch the bus we bumped in Amber and Nico who were having breakfast. We sat down with them and chatted for a while, they had been really fortunate and met a couple of locals with a car who had driven them up, taking in all the sites in on the way. We parted ways once more but had a feeling we'd bump in to each other again later on in the day. On reaching Purmamarca we came to the conclusion that in hindsight this is where we should have spent our first night.

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Its main attraction for visitors is that it has a spectacular backdrop. This being a mountain of seven colours.

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They didn't come out too well in photographs but quite distinctly ranged from terracotta to green, with a nice burst of deep purple in the middle.

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The village itself is also very sweet; there is a plaza with a small church and lots of narrow dusty streets to wander along. We found a small cafe where we munched on some Llama filled empanadas, which are basically miniature pasties. With our tummies full we wandered back towards the bus stop and for the next two hours wished we'd been a little bit quicker.

Stupidly we didn't check the bus times back and as we watched a cloud of dust generated by a departing bus settle, we realised we had a long wait ahead of us. As we sat on the pavement and waited we saw a lot of tourists pulling up in rental cars and I tried to smile sweetly, thinking perhaps one of them might offer us a lift. Unfortunately my silent pleas went unheard and we resigned ourselves to waiting it out. Adam convinced me to walk the streets of Purmamarca once more, and we climbed a little way up one of the surrounding hills. After a while though there was nothing more to do except plonk ourselves down in the dust and wait.

Happily seated on the bus back to Tilcara we planned to get off and head straight for Pucara, a restored pre-hispanic hilltop settlement which sits just above the town. As we walked along we thought we still had a fair amount of time before it shut but once we reached the gates we were informed we had roughly twenty minutes. As we quickly began to ascend the hill we saw Amber and Nico walking leisurely down and they told us we better hurry up as they'd already been given their time warning at the top.

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Huffing and puffing (more me than Adam) we made it and there were some nice views of the town which from above looked like a little green oasis amongst the surrounding desert landscape.

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The man posted at the top told us we had to go back down after only a couple of minutes, so we didn't get much of a look around, just a couple of photos and that was it. With a whirlwind visit complete we walked back to town and were looking forward to a bit of a rest.

That evening we headed down to the same spot as the night before and watched the setting sun.

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Our time in Argentina was almost at an end as we would be heading to Bolivia the next day. Finishing our visit to the country in this land of sand, burnt orange rock, and cacti was a nice contrast to the beginning of our trip where the ground was covered in snow, ice and broken up with turquoise lakes.

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It just highlights how vast Argentina is and despite being annoyingly expensive, we both enjoyed it a lot.

More Soon,

Laura & Adam