A canyon painted in colors

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Today we took a bus to a town high up in the mountains for the day...we ended up at around 11,000 feet in the village of Humahuaca. The bus ride took us up the Quebreda or canyon of Humahuaca for a couple hours. The whole canyon is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The colors and rock formations are beautiful...Some parts look like Sedona AZ and others a moonscape. This area has one of the few concentrations of indigenous people. There wasn´t a large population when the Spanish arrived and most of those were of course killed off.

We got there after a 5 hour bus ride, and only had a few hours before we had to head back. We had hoped to take local busses back down, stopping at villages on the way, but the schedules would have gotten us back to Salta very late.

We found a restaurant with a vegetarian special (the local specialty is llama..), and just as we finished eating, a parade came by. It was part of Carnival, but has obvious older orgins: There was a rock pile with a corn stalk and flowers in it at the small square where the parade ended. We saw more of these along the road on the way back.

After buying sweaters (we don´t know if they are actually made there...or China?), we headed back down. All along the way there were festivities, many involving throwing flour and water at people!

Yesterday was a day off...we slept in, went to the museum, had a long lunch with Enders and Silvina, and took a local bus up to San Lorenzo, a small town 20 minutes outside of Salta, where there is park along a river and beautiful homes and tea shops...We would spend a night out there if we even come back...beautiful hotels for only about $80/night!

Well, after getting more pesos and attending Mass for bit in the beautiful pink cathedral, we are relaxing at the beautiful Hetel Del Antiguo Convento until we walk to the bus station for another afternoon and night of bus travel....

Next post from Mendoza....

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Photos

Kids in the river at San Lorenzo
Many people come up here to relax...it´s only about $.50 round trip...

One of the hotels in San Lorenzo
It seemed to have no one staying there....about $80/night with breakfast...it is across from the river...

A typical bus station
There are many different bus lines...hundreds it seems... and few express busses, so we stop in many towns no matter where we are going. Luckily, there are few towns in Argentina for the size of the country...

The river valley
We followed this valley up the canyon.

The road
They keep earth movers stationed along the road, due to the many landslides.

Church in Square in Humahuaca
There is a life size statue that comes out at noon, but we missed it....

Fields and mountains
There is much small farming along the river all the way up the canyon. We saw beets, cabbages, corn, and other crops....horses, goats, and burros everywhere too.

Bus Station in Humahuaca
There were many tourists here...most came in tour groups...
I felt a little dizzy up this high, but wasn´t bad...