Incan Shadows

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Ok, you caught me, I'm actually writing this Tuesday morning. Ok, tuesday mid day.

Yesterday again was incredible. I took a 14 hour excursion. We left Salta at 6:40 in the morning and headed to the province of Jujuy for a very full day of sight seeing.

Our first stop was the pueblo of Pumamarca, in the Valley of Seven Colors. Pumamarca is famous for their artisean crafts market, which we got to explore. The craftsmen were very friendly and to my surprise, very knowledgeable in worldly matters.

It always comes as a bit of a surprise how little attention our news in the United States really gives to international politics. Sure, grand scale disasters are covered, as are issues with countries we either are at war with or might be going to war with. But that's pretty much where it ends.

I did not find it at all unusual when teachers at a progressive school in a large metropolitan area were well read and well spoken about American politics. Still, it creates a bit of a surprise when indigeounous peoples of the rural Andes have been following the US primaries closer than most US citizens I know, and can speak intelligently and knowledgeable about Obama and what his nomination really means for the world beyond our borders.

They were also really nice about letting me photograph them, and didn't even try to pose.

Anyhow, back to the day. Focus, focus.

After leaving Pumamarca, we headed to Tilcara, where the University of Buenos Aires maintains an archeological museum on the site of pre-Incan ruins. These ruins have been restored, but all buildings have been kept to their origional shapes and materials. They sat in the middle of a botanical garden that was basically a Saguaro forest. There wasn't much in the way of actual information on the culture that was there, and it was unguided, but I took a hike around the grounds and found the scenery absolutely breathtaking.

From there, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. One could immediately feel the difference in climate and strength of the sun now that we were officially tropical. Of course, now it was also mid-day, which could have accounted for some of it.

We headed north through Quebrada Humahuacha to the actual town of Humahuacha (hoo-mah-WAH-kah). We visited a church who's alter was made entirely of gold. It was incredible, but photos were not permitted inside the church, and thus it was my image alone.

Afterwards we ate a regional lunch in a restaurant with live folkloric singers. Remember yesterday how that Llama dissed me in the picture. Well I gots mines. His cousin was delicious!

I actually expected llama to taste like lamb. It didn't. It was a very tender meat, ligher in flavor than beef, but with a similar taste. It was marinated in Torrontes, a regional wine varietal.

Lunch was a lot of fun. I ate with the three other people on the tour who were from the province of San Juan, near Mendoza. It was two older couples, one of which was Jewish. We had an interesting conversation about the relevance of Kosher in modern times.

After lunch, we toured some of the local artisean craft shops. This is an area that produces many products made of llama wool, and some local craftswomen gave us a demonstration of how they weave the wool into different designs. The loom looked similar to the ones we used at Cranbrook.

After our tour, we made one more breif stop in the town of Uquia to look at another church (and 'cause pretty much everyone needed to pee really really badly). The church was all right, but across the street was a cemetary in front of a mountain that looked like a watercolor.

The tribes up in this part of the country bury their dead on top of hills so that they'll be closer to heaven. Although it must be said that every cemetary I've seen in this country is of the above ground variety, including the most famous one in Recoleta.

By the time we got back to Salta, I could barely keep my eyes open. I went to bed at 9:30 and slept for over 11 hours.

Today I'm going to explore Salta itself on my own. I'll write another blog tonight.

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Comments

[nick]

colors
hi, that valley of seven colors? i see three. thanks for that. ;)