Blogs from Tilcara, Jujuy, Argentina, South America - page 2

After nearly six weeks in Argentina, it was time to move on. For my final few days in the country, I headed to Tilcara, a small village in the Quebrada de Humahuaca north of Jujuy. It was absolutely beautiful....you know how sometimes you get off the bus somewhere, and you just know you've made the right decision going there? Tilcara was like that. It's an interesting combination of modern and traditional - touristy without being in-your-face touristy. Upmarket tourist hotels and restaurants nestled side by side with traditional buildings made of adobe, in streets that trailed off into the mountains beyond. It's an incredibly arid area, as it hardly rains at all (although it did rain while I was there) and the main attraction - apart from the mountains - is the Pukará, a pre-Inca fortress ... read more

Buenos dias amigos! For the last couple of weeks we have been up and down some of the most picturesque valleys of northern Argentina. Argentina is such a huge country with so many completely different environments, it's like another country here in the Northern provinces compared to Patagonia. Some people say that Tucuman (where I left you last time) is like a dividing point, south of Tucuman being an Argentina more similar to Europe with the majority of people being of European stock and north of Tucuman being much more Andean territory, where the inhabitants are darker skinned, of mixed Indian and Spanish origin and more similar to Bolivians or Peruvians than to Europeans. We have found that more or less to be true and have loved experiencing a completely different culture from all that ... read more

A quick summary of my week as I run out of time for keeping this blog uptodate! In a certain way it is quite positive as it means I am doing so many things that I don't have time to dedicate to internet! I left you in Chile on Friday, waiting for my bus to San Pedro. San Pedro is a small village in the middle of the Atacama desert and it's nice even if it is fully dedicated to tourism. Arrived there at 18h, a guy jumps on us (I was with Francesco, the Italian I was talking last week) and speaks about everything in Spanish, Italian French and Dutch and convinces us to go to its hospedaje. 15 minutes later the Saturday tours were organized... Saturday: wake up at 3h30, for a pick up ... read more

Last weekend I went to Tilcara with a group from FLACSO. It was really interesting. Tilcara is in the north of Argentina, three hours away from Bolivia. It is definitely a place you have to go if you visit Argentina. It is very different from Buenos Aires. Everyone says that Buenos Aires is not Argentina and that to truly know Argentina you have to get out of the city. We took an airplane to Jujuy, the capital of the province of Jujuy which is where Tilcara is. We then took a bus to Tilcara. What was supposed to be a 3 hour bus ride quickly turned into five hours. The picoteros (protesters) were blocking roads so we couldn’t get through. They were a group of unemployed workers who want more financial help from the government. From ... read more