humahuaca, argentina

oh, crossing the border, what an experience. 11-hour bus from sucre to villazon, get there at 5 am, really dark and horror stories of how the border was dangerous. i tried to ignore them, the stories, but it was hard. i actually asked the lady next to me to stop telling me how bad it could go, about how people take advantage of tourists. i just waited until the sun started coming out to make sure it was ´safe´. you know, just in case. 6:30ish a.m. i started walking, found a bus and someone to show me to the border. ...guess what, after crossing, i realized that he charged me too much for the bus i was going to take in argentina. it was true, but at least it wasn´t scary. :) 

i made some friends that crossed the border with me, and of course, i was the only one that had to pay a fee (called reciprocity fee, like in bolivia and chile) ...so, if you are traveling, check for stuff like this. appart from paying, it wasn´t scary, and i was happy about that. 

from la quiaca, the border town on the argentinian side of the border,  i took a bus to humahuaca, a small city at the beginning of the beautiful 150km long mountain valley, quebrada de humahuaca. the quebrada is a unesco world heritage site, and traveling through the towns along the valley totally shows why. the town feels very rural, like it got stuck in time, in a good way. 

at the municipality (is that a word?) or city hall, there is a small door under the clock that opens every day at noon sharp. from it, san francisco solano comes out to say hi to everyone that gets together at the plaza, or maybe it is to bless them (?), yes, i think so. he moves his arm up and down three times, the he goes back inside and the door closes. i think that the most entertaining part was seeing people running and taking turns to take pictures with it because the whole event is very quick. :)

the first afternoon was spent walking around a bit and laying in bed sick.. but the next day i felt so much better! i wondered around town, it is pretty small, and pretty pretty. actually, it is beautiful, surrounded by the mountains, desert feeling and once again, the amazing blue sky. i must say that after a really rough trip and previous day crossing the border, i was oh so glad to be there, in gorgeous humahuaca.

since i was feeling better, the owner of the hostel, don josé, showed me their version of the local market where i could get really good and inexpensive food.

right next to the plaza, there is a monument to the independence of argentina and to those who fought for it. humahuaca had been a battleground during the times of war for independence.

there is a place called la peña blanca, the white rock, that serves as a viewing point of the town, so i decided to walk there.

once i reached la peña blanca, i sat up there to relax and enjoy the view, when three guys came up and sat next to me. it didn´t take me long to find new travel partners. :) they decided to keep going up the hill and were so kind to invite me.

oh, the views, THE VIEWS. it was so much better to keep going up. it was also hard to breathe since i was still sick and we were still pretty high above sea level, but hey, i survived peru and bolivia, i could do this! ..and they were really nice and would go slow for the short-legged girl that was coughing. nice new friends.

crazy winds and awesome views.

as the sun kept coming down, the magic light started to appear, i can´t understand why the people at the tourist info office did not recommend doing this hike. seriously! if you go to humahuaca, just keep going up, you can´t get lost since you can always see the city from up there and not loose sense of direction.

after walking for a while, taking a million pictures, we went back to la peña blanca, and watched the sunset. oh, the sunset, THE SUNSET! ..and new friends.

back in town, we looked for some yerba mate, boiled some water, got some alfajores and sat down at the main plaza to just talk. perfect ingredients for good times. :)

humhuaca kind of had a sad ending, i got sick, again, yes, and spent another day sleeping... and being sick. but hey, i think my body needed the rest for all the fun that was about to come!