Quebrada de Humahuaca

I got picked up at 6:45am sharp this morning for a full-day excursion into the Quebrada de Humamuaca. This gorge runs for over a hundred kilometres, north of Salta, and I think it was declared some kind of international treasure of humanity or something. On the tour was me, a hilarious older couple from Buenos Aires, and our Salteño tour guide, Alberto, all in a 4x4 truck.

As we started to drive up into the gorge, Alberto bought a bag a coca leaves from a street vendor. Coca leaves - yup, the leaves from which cocaine happens to be produced and which also happens to be an important and traditional part of many South American cultures - are chewed to help reduce the effects of altitude sickness. You stuff a bunch in your mouth and put them in between your back teeth and the side of your mouth and just leave them there. But don't chew them - they're pretty bitter.

The Quebrada is a huge tourist attraction. But it's no Disney World - it's a tourist attraction because it's a frigging impressive natural wonder. And most of the tourists are Argentinians, so it doesn't really bother me at all.

As you get up into the gorge, tall desert mountains and arid-landscape rise up on either side of the road. There's the Cerro de Siete Colores, where minerals and some kind of geological phenomea came together to create huge washes of different colours in the rock. There's the Pukara de Tilcara, the remnants of a pre-Incan fortress on the top of a huge hill. And then there are the villages of Purmamarca and Humahuaca, where local craftspeople sell their textiles, pottery and other crafts in the town plazas. A band playing Andean folk music played while we ate lunch.

I learned a whole bunch, took some great pictures (the ones on this site, aren't mine, BTW, thanks once again to Google Image Search) , but now I'm tired. Tomorrow it's off at 7am once again for another excursion...