Jujuy ~ Part 1

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In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s the highlights:
*Intensely precise indigenous flute players
*Multi-colored mountains
*A night out at a bar in Tilcara, Argentina
*Numerous giant cacti
*Ping-Pong/Drinking games with the bus driver
*Incredible stars lying next to llamas

Ok, now onto Jujuy, Tilcara, Humahuaca, La Quebrada, Los Salares, y Purmamarca. If all those names sound indigenous to you, that’s because this part of Argentina feels literally like a different country, even more so than the deep jungle of Misiones province. The people here live a much different lifestyle, not only relying on the existence of tourism, but also enjoying their own culture specific to each town. For example, anyone living near the salt flats can tell you all about Pachamama (Mother Earth), the Medicinal/Remedial god (forgot the name), and the Sun god (Also forgot the name). Anyone from Humahuaca or Tilcara will sing along with any random indigenous folk song played by one of their many local bands. The bands are great!

Before I delve into the trip, here’s a preface: I traveled with a group of about 50 as a trip organized by my program. We flew to Jujuy (2 hours) Thursday morning, stayed in cabañas in Tilcara, and did all sorts of activities until our return Sunday morning.

Every group meal was accompanied by a different band. I think the first one, Thursday night, was the best. After what some might call heavy pre-dinner wine drinking, a number of us were ready to dance by the end of the meal. What followed was a very fun, unexpected and disorganized dance party which eventually got almost everyone up and out of their seats. This was the first time I saw an instrument called an “Erke”. It is a long tube of bamboo with a shofar-type piece attached to the end. You play it just like a shofar, so I obviously played like a pro (after the band was finished playing). A group of about 10 of us ended up walking into town with the band members to hit the bar. At this point of the year, Tilcara is basically full of Argentine artist hippies trying to sell whatever they can make. I met a lot of them at this bar. The bartender had awesome, long dreads and I met a red-bearded guy named Pablo. When our group entered the bar, we tripled the number of people who were originally inside. We returned, and got to sleep around 4 (I think).

Friday was an early 9:30 AM departure for La Quebrada de Humahuaca. The name describes the type of disorganized mountains surrounding the area - the site we visited are the reconstructed ruins of what used to be a ‘Pucará’ (a fortress city). They also had a botanical garden with a surprising variety of species…tons of cacti, but also a lot of different herbs, trees, and other plants. We got back in the bus and moved on to Humahuaca where we ate lunch and listened to another entertaining band. The band was great…possibly better than Thursday, but not as exciting to watch. Then the accordion/Erke player joined the group and it went downhill from there. Myself and my other tablemates were not convinced that he actually knew how to play accordion, and it really detracted from the feel of the more natural instruments being played. The Erke was just obnoxious. We had a free night to eat our choice of food at whatever restaurant we chose in Tilcara. There is a surprising array of restaurants for such a small town…which definitely prosper more in the more popular tourist months (apparently February - Carnaval - is huge in Tilcara). I ate at La Chacana and started with a Calabaza/Zapatillo (Pumpkin/Squash) soup with toasted quinoa sprinkled on top. My main course was llama wrapped in bacon with two sides. One was a shredded pea mixture with melted cheese in the middle, and the other was simply a tower of tomato chunks. The llama was actually tasty, but really needed both side dishes to bring out the flavor. Back at the cabañas, the stars were absolutely beautiful and as clear as you would imagine so far away from the city pollution and at 3000 meters elevation.

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Comments

[dude]

i am a fan!
i am most def a fan of the highlights! as much as i do enjoy reading the whole article. you are quite the innovator of efficient things.