Blogs from Tilcara, Jujuy, Argentina, South America

Our last stop in Argentina was in the Jujuy region at a place called Tilcara in the Rio Grande valley. This is an absolute must as the mountains and desert rocks are incredible. We first of all enjoyed the heat of the sun, something we had missed since Sao Paulo, then the next day, after a salty meal, trekked up to el Pucara (2500m above sea level), a pre-Hispanic fortress with fantastic views over the town. The fortress has been reconstructed in parts to show where the locals lived before and during the Inca times. From what it seemed they had to contend very much with the cacti that surrounded the fort and the hillside surrounding Tilcara. We made friends with some Llamas and fed them some dried leaves that we noticed they were trying to ... read more

We all woke up feeling a little worse for wear after the night before and Ben went to collect the car while Steve and I stayed in bed. It took us about two hours to actually get up and have breakfast and so we weren't even ready to leave until about 10, when we had planned to leave at 8! I felt really bad for Petra (the German girl we had promised a lift to) because she had been up and waiting for us since 8am. We loaded all of our stuff into our sexy little VW "Gol" and were just about ready to leave, however, in my hungover state I apparently had other plans and managed to lock the keys for the car in the boot, with all the other doors locked...Ben was distinctly unimpressed, ... read more

Rano sme sa vypravili na stanicu, uz sme mali kupene listky a nasim cielom bola Tilcara. Tilcara je mala dedinka leziaca v Quebrada de Humahuaca /roklina/, ktora je vyhlasena svojou krasou. Cesta nakoniec trvala o hodinu dlhsie ako mala, pricom sme nemali ziadnu zavadu ani zapcha nebola. Mysleli sme si ze v Argentine, ako vyspelejsej zemi to bude lepsie, ale toto je pravdepobobne rovnake pre celu Juznu Ameriku. Kusok za Tilcarou sme navstivili Gargantua del Diablo /diablova priepast/, zostupili sme aj dole k vodopadu, ktory by si zasluzil viac vody. Vecer sa pomaly blizil a tak sme si zacali hladat miesto pre stan. Nechceli sme kempovat v kempe, chceli sme usetrit ale tiez sme nechceli riskovat ze sa niekto rozhodne pre party do skorych rannych hodin. Podarilo sa nam najst idealne miesto, dokonca chranene hlinenym valom ... read more

We got to Villazòn, which is the Bolivian border town. We changed our Bolivianos in for Pesos (thus halfing our money, literally). The Bolivian border guard was a young, jovial guy--joked around about the U.S. with us and stamped us on our way in no time. Then we walked across the bridge to Argentina--glorious country that Josie missed so--and waited over 2 hours to get our stamps there! The Argentinians kept getting pulled ahead of line and we were stuck with whole families of Bolivians, little children and ancient grandparents, always budging in front of us with new relatives. Then, it seemed like the immigration officers took at least a half hour siesta where they just closed the (one) window. We got through and trudged uphill with our bags to the bus station, bought a ticket ... read more

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 ... read more