The first thing I noticed as soon as we landed in the north of Argentina was the genetic make-up of the people. In Buenos Aires the population is predominantly made up of descendants of European immigrants. Here the people are much more indigenous and thus are shorter and have much darker coloring. I joked that my parents could have selected different partners and thus have given me A. a higher tolerance of high altitude and B. darker skin. Alas, I am stuck with the genes I have and will do my best to be grateful.
Our first stop in Jujuy was a town called Purmamarca. It is famous for a seven colored mountain. There isn’t much to the town and its existence is predominantly for tourists. Starting early in the morning the central plaza is completely ensconced by tables piled high with fake llama sweaters made in either Bolivia or China. There is a nice circuit trail that takes roughly an hour to hike just outside of town. It takes you up high enough to get some awesome views of the surrounding mountains and their multicolored layers of minerals. We did the hike twice, well technically I did it twice. Nico ran it one of the times and definitely felt the difference in elevation from Buenos Aires. We also ate at the restaurant, Los Colores, twice. There was live music and they served quinoa milanesa, llama meat, pollo picante, and a plethora of other local dishes. I love quinoa and unfortunately it is usually expensive in most places around the world, but in this region it is very prevalent and cheap! For other travelers I recommend just a one night stay in Purmamarca or make a pit stop on your way to Tilcara.
We took the bus to Tilcara and were greeted by a dusty dirty town. On our walk to the hostel I started to feel off. I felt dizzy and light headed. We checked into the Albahaca Hostel. It is a very friendly place, but the hippies running it albeit welcoming are very lazy. Let’s just say the water heater had two knives sticking out of it in an attempt to keep the temperature gage in place and all the dishes in the communal kitchen were covered with bugs. After checking in, we went in search of food and that is when the altitude sickness first hit me. I almost passed out. Luckily, Nico got me to a chair in time. We ate pollo milanesa and both experienced bouts of stomach issues. Apparently it isn’t wise to eat at a restaurant housed in a mechanic shop for your future reference. Due to the altitude sickness I began drinking copious amounts of mate de coca. Tea made from the leaves of the coca plant, the very ones used to make cocaine. The leaves are soaked in acid, stripped of all nutritional value, and reduced to the fine powdered drug. Before this process, the leaves help chewers fight fatigue, hunger, combat altitude sickness, and act as an anesthetic.
The second day in Tilcara gave us a completely different view of the town. The rising sun highlighted the surrounding mountains and it was still too early for the dust to have been kicked up by the afternoon traffic. We met our tour guide for the day and set off. He led us up into the mountains and to the Waira Caves. He shared a lot about the region’s culture and how it has preserved many aspects of the Incan culture.
He explained how since the time of the Incas the people of the area have held the sun god (male) and Mother Earth (obviously female) in high esteem. There is a stronger sense of gender equality in their culture greatly due to the significance of Pachamama (Mother Earth). He said it is very common for women to pursue their own careers outside of the home, go to university, and to go out and see the world in their twenties. When they are around 28 or 29 it is time for them to find their mate and to start having kids. He went onto to say like a woman’s body the earth has a 28 day cycle with a 5 day purification period. He even went as far as saying that men should take note of how the sun “works” the earth. “A man should not only focus on his own pleasure, but use his mind to delay his for the sake of the woman’s pleasure.” He then spent about 15 minutes explaining how strong the bond between humans and the earth is and that in fact we are one with the earth. Pachamama gives us life, food, warmth, water, shelter, and animals to be our companions.
They, like the Incas, believe that man originally came from the stars and once fully evolved will return. He used the Egyptians to illustrate this by saying that they must have fully evolved and that is why they “disappeared”. He compared their pyramids, which come to a point, to those of the Mayans and Aztecs, which are flat on top. The fact that the Egyptians’ pyramids came to a point indicates that they had fully evolved and thus returned to the stars, while the Mayans and Aztecs did not succeed in this evolution. The way their burials work are also connected back to this belief of returning to the stars. They believe in reincarnation until you ascend back to the stars and thus death is seen as a resting period. They bury their dead sitting up in the fetial position so they are ready to be reborn. We saw this first hand in Salta with the mummies of the Incan children found on Mount Llullaillaco. I really enjoyed how their system of thinking revolved greatly around logic and observations of the earth, moon, and stars. For example, the number four is very significant. There are four seasons, four energies, and four kingdoms.
Knowing that South America is predominantly Catholic, I asked if his community acknowledged both Catholicism and the old Incan ways. He said that when the Europeans came Catholicism was greatly pushed on them. So they began to practice it out in the open, but continued to follow their old ways at home. Even today statues of Mary often include the Incan symbol of Pachamama. Their community celebrates all the old Incan festivals (which involve parties and even alcohol being strewn on the ground so that Pachamama can enjoy as well) and doesn’t follow the Gregorian calendar, but the lunar calendar with New Year’s following on June 21st. He finished off by saying his people live in tight communities that share in everything from joy to sorrow and try to be mindful of all the earth has given them on a daily basis.
We went into two caves and sat through three parts of a normally five part meditation. He sprinkled water on the mouth of the cave and asked Pachamama if we could enter her “womb”. Inside the cave he told us the musky scent was her perfume. I told Nico we should figure out a way to bottle it. We probably wouldn’t make millions, but in this region we could turn a pretty penny. We had to turn off our headlamps and put out our candles for the meditation. It went on for a long time and Nico translated as the guide babbled along. More or less the point was to bring up all our painful memories from the past and to let them sit. Through communing with Pachamama we would be able to remove the pain and replace it with joy.
Once back in town we stopped in his office to pay and met a very nice woman painting gnomes on tee shirts. She showed us the book she was copying the gnomes from. I doubt she has ever had someone as interested in gnomes as I was. I took a picture of almost every page of the book. Obviously, by the title of this blog I have a thing for gnomes. It is a long story and I am not going to get into that now, but I find it fascinating that humans from different parts of the world independently of one another conceptualized these mischievous, friendly, and even sometimes evil creatures. She said that there are many different gnomes ingrained in the culture in northern Argentina and that they have been around for centuries. After saying goodbye we visited the Pucara a pre-Incan fortification.
The next day we did a day trip to Humahuaca. If you plan to continue on to the Bolivian border, I recommend stopping here on the way. We only spent a few hours and could have easily continued onto La Quiaca. We paid roughly 10 USD to split a truck with a very nice couple from Buenos Aires to climb 4,000 meters up to get a clear view of Las Serranias del Hornocal. These North Andean hills are so brilliantly colored they almost look fake. I am so glad we made the trip.
Next up crossing the Bolivian border on foot.
Our first stop in Jujuy was a town called Purmamarca. It is famous for a seven colored mountain. There isn’t much to the town and its existence is predominantly for tourists. Starting early in the morning the central plaza is completely ensconced by tables piled high with fake llama sweaters made in either Bolivia or China. There is a nice circuit trail that takes roughly an hour to hike just outside of town. It takes you up high enough to get some awesome views of the surrounding mountains and their multicolored layers of minerals. We did the hike twice, well technically I did it twice. Nico ran it one of the times and definitely felt the difference in elevation from Buenos Aires. We also ate at the restaurant, Los Colores, twice. There was live music and they served quinoa milanesa, llama meat, pollo picante, and a plethora of other local dishes. I love quinoa and unfortunately it is usually expensive in most places around the world, but in this region it is very prevalent and cheap! For other travelers I recommend just a one night stay in Purmamarca or make a pit stop on your way to Tilcara.
We took the bus to Tilcara and were greeted by a dusty dirty town. On our walk to the hostel I started to feel off. I felt dizzy and light headed. We checked into the Albahaca Hostel. It is a very friendly place, but the hippies running it albeit welcoming are very lazy. Let’s just say the water heater had two knives sticking out of it in an attempt to keep the temperature gage in place and all the dishes in the communal kitchen were covered with bugs. After checking in, we went in search of food and that is when the altitude sickness first hit me. I almost passed out. Luckily, Nico got me to a chair in time. We ate pollo milanesa and both experienced bouts of stomach issues. Apparently it isn’t wise to eat at a restaurant housed in a mechanic shop for your future reference. Due to the altitude sickness I began drinking copious amounts of mate de coca. Tea made from the leaves of the coca plant, the very ones used to make cocaine. The leaves are soaked in acid, stripped of all nutritional value, and reduced to the fine powdered drug. Before this process, the leaves help chewers fight fatigue, hunger, combat altitude sickness, and act as an anesthetic.
The second day in Tilcara gave us a completely different view of the town. The rising sun highlighted the surrounding mountains and it was still too early for the dust to have been kicked up by the afternoon traffic. We met our tour guide for the day and set off. He led us up into the mountains and to the Waira Caves. He shared a lot about the region’s culture and how it has preserved many aspects of the Incan culture.
He explained how since the time of the Incas the people of the area have held the sun god (male) and Mother Earth (obviously female) in high esteem. There is a stronger sense of gender equality in their culture greatly due to the significance of Pachamama (Mother Earth). He said it is very common for women to pursue their own careers outside of the home, go to university, and to go out and see the world in their twenties. When they are around 28 or 29 it is time for them to find their mate and to start having kids. He went onto to say like a woman’s body the earth has a 28 day cycle with a 5 day purification period. He even went as far as saying that men should take note of how the sun “works” the earth. “A man should not only focus on his own pleasure, but use his mind to delay his for the sake of the woman’s pleasure.” He then spent about 15 minutes explaining how strong the bond between humans and the earth is and that in fact we are one with the earth. Pachamama gives us life, food, warmth, water, shelter, and animals to be our companions.
They, like the Incas, believe that man originally came from the stars and once fully evolved will return. He used the Egyptians to illustrate this by saying that they must have fully evolved and that is why they “disappeared”. He compared their pyramids, which come to a point, to those of the Mayans and Aztecs, which are flat on top. The fact that the Egyptians’ pyramids came to a point indicates that they had fully evolved and thus returned to the stars, while the Mayans and Aztecs did not succeed in this evolution. The way their burials work are also connected back to this belief of returning to the stars. They believe in reincarnation until you ascend back to the stars and thus death is seen as a resting period. They bury their dead sitting up in the fetial position so they are ready to be reborn. We saw this first hand in Salta with the mummies of the Incan children found on Mount Llullaillaco. I really enjoyed how their system of thinking revolved greatly around logic and observations of the earth, moon, and stars. For example, the number four is very significant. There are four seasons, four energies, and four kingdoms.
Knowing that South America is predominantly Catholic, I asked if his community acknowledged both Catholicism and the old Incan ways. He said that when the Europeans came Catholicism was greatly pushed on them. So they began to practice it out in the open, but continued to follow their old ways at home. Even today statues of Mary often include the Incan symbol of Pachamama. Their community celebrates all the old Incan festivals (which involve parties and even alcohol being strewn on the ground so that Pachamama can enjoy as well) and doesn’t follow the Gregorian calendar, but the lunar calendar with New Year’s following on June 21st. He finished off by saying his people live in tight communities that share in everything from joy to sorrow and try to be mindful of all the earth has given them on a daily basis.
We went into two caves and sat through three parts of a normally five part meditation. He sprinkled water on the mouth of the cave and asked Pachamama if we could enter her “womb”. Inside the cave he told us the musky scent was her perfume. I told Nico we should figure out a way to bottle it. We probably wouldn’t make millions, but in this region we could turn a pretty penny. We had to turn off our headlamps and put out our candles for the meditation. It went on for a long time and Nico translated as the guide babbled along. More or less the point was to bring up all our painful memories from the past and to let them sit. Through communing with Pachamama we would be able to remove the pain and replace it with joy.
Once back in town we stopped in his office to pay and met a very nice woman painting gnomes on tee shirts. She showed us the book she was copying the gnomes from. I doubt she has ever had someone as interested in gnomes as I was. I took a picture of almost every page of the book. Obviously, by the title of this blog I have a thing for gnomes. It is a long story and I am not going to get into that now, but I find it fascinating that humans from different parts of the world independently of one another conceptualized these mischievous, friendly, and even sometimes evil creatures. She said that there are many different gnomes ingrained in the culture in northern Argentina and that they have been around for centuries. After saying goodbye we visited the Pucara a pre-Incan fortification.
The next day we did a day trip to Humahuaca. If you plan to continue on to the Bolivian border, I recommend stopping here on the way. We only spent a few hours and could have easily continued onto La Quiaca. We paid roughly 10 USD to split a truck with a very nice couple from Buenos Aires to climb 4,000 meters up to get a clear view of Las Serranias del Hornocal. These North Andean hills are so brilliantly colored they almost look fake. I am so glad we made the trip.
Next up crossing the Bolivian border on foot.
