Tilcara (May 13-14, 2006)

Our bus to Tilcara was leaving at 10:30am, so we were able to take our time in the morning, packing our stuff and having breakfast. It was another rough night for me – I bought a 75-pack of Kleenex at the grocery store last night and it was finished by noon today. Lincoln is on the mend, so I’m hoping I will be soon too. We need to move on though, so no more lounging around today!

The bus ride to Tilcara took four hours, and once we were north of San Salvador de Jujuy (the capital of the province of Jujuy), the scenery started getting great. We were driving up a valley that had sandstone hills on either side of us, carved in wonderful formations. As we moved further north, the towns started getting smaller and smaller. Tilcara has a population of about 3000 people, and reminded us of a Mexican pueblo. It is also 2461m above sea level, so we’re getting up there in altitude. The homes are built with mud bricks or stone, the streets are cobbled and dusty, there are stray dogs running around, adorable small children with runny noses, and the occasional person dressed in traditional Quechua clothing. We love it!

We left the bus station (which surprisingly did not have any touts) and were walking down the street to find somewhere to stay. We had looked up a couple of places in the internet before we left Salta, so had some places in mind. We soon ran into a man named Diego who asked us if we were looking for a hostel. We said we were, and offered for us to come and look at his family’s posada. They rent three rooms in their home, had been renovating it for the past year and a half, and it was newly opened. We said, sure, why not. We had a look and liked it, so we stayed. There was only one room with a double bed, and it was of course the most expensive (60 pesos, US$20, including breakfast), but also the nicest and the only one with a private bathroom (which is really nice!). It has a back porch with a great view of the surrounding mountains. The bed has the best mattress we’ve found yet-nice and firm. Diego’s girlfriend is Italian-born, grew up in Germany, lived a bunch of other places, speaks about five languages, and has decided to settle here in Tilcara. We talked to her for a while and heard her interesting story. She is pregnant and due in a couple of months. Her and Diego are very nice people.

After we had settled in, we left to walk around the central plaza of the town and went to the archaeological museum, which had a lot of interesting artefacts that had been excavated in the area, including a still fairly well preserved mummy from the Atacama desert in Chile. Next we walked to the ruins (called a pukara) that were on a hilltop just outside the town. The ruins are of a pre-Hispanic fortress, with some sections of it restored to its original state. The buildings are built from mud and stones, and the roofs are supported by cactus wood. The area is now overgrown with cacti, and the views of the surrounding mountains is gorgeous. After wandering around for a while and soaking up the atmosphere, we headed back into town.

The restaurants didn’t open until 7 or 8pm, so I had a nap until then. We asked Diego if there was any place that had vegetarian meals, and he recommended a couple a block past the plaza (El Patio and Colonial). El Patio didn’t look open, but the Colonial was so we ate there. It was a small, family-run restaurant with lots of stuff on their menu. I had a Milanesa de Quinoa with Andean potatoes, and Lincoln had a big piece of Veal steak with Andean potatoes, but his potatoes were in a cheese sauce. It was all very yummy! A milanesa is like a breaded schnitzel-type patty, and is usually made with veal or chicken. The vegetarian version was very good. I put some of Lincoln’s cheese on it, and some of the delicious spicy salsa that came as an appetizer, which made it even better. We also ordered some of the house wine, which cost about a dollar for ½ litre, but you get what you pay for…

After dinner we headed back to our room and I read for a bit then went to bed. I found a small treasure in my toiletry bag – one last Sudafed! I took it before going to bed and had my first good sleep in a few nights.

::May 14::

We woke up this morning to yet another beautiful sunny day. It gets very cool in the evenings, and we used a sleeping bag on top of our three blankets (there is no heat in the room). The days are hot though, especially in the sun. We looked out our window and saw that the table on our patio had been set for breakfast. We took our time eating outside, and I had a nice chat with Diego’s mother, who told me all about the renovations they have been making to their house, all the surrounding land that their family owns, her family in Jujuy, her arthritis that has been healed since she moved back to Tilcara (she was born here and then lived in Jujuy), how Diego and Annalisa are going to Germany to give birth to the baby and she’s not happy about that, and some other things that I didn’t quite pick up on. She was speaking Spanish the whole time, so I was pretty pleased with myself how much I understood. It was interesting to chat with her.

We decided to go on a hike up to Garganta del Diablo (they like giving that name to things here!). This one was a gorge that has a dam at the top, a waterfall, and some interesting landscape. It was great to be out hiking, but I still am not feeling the greatest and went through lots of tissues again. The walk up was slow, and I had trouble breathing deeply. Probably a combination of the altitude and my cold. It took us around 1 1/2 hrs to walk up and we spent a while exploring the gorge. It wasn’t super-spectacular, but it was interesting and there were nice views on the way up and back. I’ll post pictures of the hike later, as they are still on the camera.

We came back into town and treated ourselves to an ice cream in the main plaza, bought a beer to bring back to our balcony to drink, then lounged for a bit and I had a nap and a shower. We had tried to call our mothers for Mother’s Day before the hike, but neither of them were home, so we called again before dinner. Happy Mother’s Day to our Mom’s, and all our friends out there who are mothers!

We are leaving Tilcara tomorrow morning, at 8am and taking the bus to La Quaica (3 ½ hours), the town on the Argentine side of the border with Bolivia. There is a bridge to walk across to get into Bolivia, in the town of Villazon. We are going to immediately catch a bus to Tupiza, which should be another three hours or so, and hope to get to Tupiza before dark and find somewhere to stay. From Tupiza, we hope to take a four-day, three-night tour of the Salar de Uyuni, the salt flats, and I’m not sure about Internet access there, so it might be a few days before you hear from us again.