Beautiful Quebrada de Humahuaca (Humahuaca Valley).
Cute little cabin up in the hills passed during one of our hikes….this would be getting away from it all!
Cetral square in Cordoba.
We saw these little balls everywhere, here they are decorating the window of a little restaurant where we grabbed a quick empanada and tamale during our travels down the valley.
This hilly graveyard in a town close to pumamarca advertised a welcome to visitors…we thought it was rather amusing that the graveyard seemed to be welcoming toursists.
A view from the top of town in Humahuaca. There was a rather ornate memorial here, but I preferred the simple view.
They have some massive cacti in this area of the country…here is Steve next to one on our hike.
Guanico are a local species which the Argentinans are very proud of….they provide meat and wool. Here is a gigantic guanico made of stone outside a handcrafts shop.
More guanicos in Humahuaca.
Beautiful white church in Humahuaca, tha town at the head of the valley and for which it was named.
Pretty Plateau
Lovely scenery on the way to Pumamarca from Salta.
The old and the new….
We bought a little cactus wood box from this vendor on the side of the road.
Tropic of Capricorn…this is it! We are in the tropics now, baby….this was a neat stop where you could stand on the tropic line and they had a gigantic sun dial.
Central town square in Pumamarca with vendors selling their very colorful wares
River valley,
The next town over in the valley…what a view!
On the way to the salt flats
This is the Andean road we had to take to visit the saltflats which were about 50 miles outside of pumamarca.
Wide open salt flats….
Fun with shadows, you can see where they are harvesting the salt…
A local artisan selling their wares at the salt flats…truly in the middle of nowhere, you have to wonder what they go through to haul all of this stuff out here every day.
Steve outside a Pumamarca restaurant.
This sign appeared to be advertising a live show…I think I would pay money to see this llama perform…..
Coming back down the valley to Pumamarca.
Beautiful scenery around and about Pumamarca.
Lovely Pumamarca hotel tha tblends into the surroundings (not our hotel, just thought it was cool)
Massive rock practically in town, we climbed about on it…can you see the peson in the upper lefhand corner? Gives some perspective….
Panorama Pumamarca
More of the same.
Ahhhh….pretty
Oh! Gorgeous.
Pumamarca, the 7-colored hill town, can you wonder why they call it that? Following are pics from a short hikke right from town…….
Town of the seven-colored hill…..
Argentina – Pumamarca
April 26, 2014
Pumamarca is famous for its seven-color mountain. When you see the pictures, it is clear why people have been coming to look at Pumamarca’s natural wonders for ages. The town itself is small, but has a lovely small tourist town feel. The shops and homes are adobe, the main square is full of artisans selling their many-colored wares and we found probably our favorite restaurant in Argentina all the way on the other side of town from our hotel (about 5 blocks away). They served an amazing llama quinoa risotto (truly, it was delicious) and you could order a huge plate of grilled veggies on the side. We had such a great meal, we went back the next night for trout, lamb stew, and another big plate of veggies! We were a little worried about the tourism infrastructure, but both the restaurant and our very lovely hotel made for a delightful stay when we weren’t hiking or driving around gaping at the scenery. One adventure was up the mountains to visit the large salt flats that are actively being harvested for salt. It was a harrowing ride up an amazing switchback road, but the salt flats are something to see, with their blinding white going on and on in the distance, it is just fun to run around on the salt. We went through many little towns and saw a TON of beautiful landscape…..I will let the photos speak for themselves……
Kathleen
