Quebrada de Humahuaca

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Quebrada De Humahuaca, 2003), Inscribed As A Cultural Landscape Along A Route Used For 10,000 Years. Coordinates Are Purmamarca At The Valley'S Southern End · Purmamarca, Jujuy

The Quebrada de Humahuaca is a long, narrow mountain valley in the far north-west of Argentina, cut by the Rio Grande between mountains striped in red, green, purple and ochre. For ten thousand years it has been a route between the Andean highlands and the lowlands, used by early hunters, the Inca road and colonial mule trains, and UNESCO listed it as a cultural landscape. The villages along it are adobe and stone, with whitewashed churches and people whose culture is Andean rather than Argentine in the Buenos Aires sense. Purmamarca sits under the Hill of Seven Colours, Tilcara has a reconstructed pre-Inca hill fort, Maimara the painter's palette slopes, and Humahuaca a hilltop independence monument. The Hornocal range with its fourteen colours is a gravel drive above the town. Altitude runs from about 2,200 to over 3,000 metres in the villages and higher on the passes, so altitude sickness is real. February's carnival is the wildest party in the Andes.

Ruta Nacional 9, Purmamarca, Jujuy, Purmamarca, Jujuy, Y4618, Argentina

The valley and its villages are open at all times. The Pucara de Tilcara and the churches keep daytime hours. Craft markets in Purmamarca and Humahuaca run through the day. Roads can be cut by mudslides after heavy summer rain.

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