JuJuy ( - Pronounced “Who-whoie”)
February 18-19, 2024
“There is no truth to the rumor that the local school mascot for the JuJuy football club is called ‘Pew-Pewie’”
-Anonymous
“I can’t eat anymore empanadas”
-Colleen Dobbs
Salta was a real challenge. We came north from Mendoza to the northwest part of the country near the border with Bolivia. The main town in this region is Salta. Our plan, like many of the places we have stayed, was to stay near the town center so we could just walk to the various sites. Usually this works well.
But getting to the center of Salta was a white knuckle affair by car. The streets are laid out in grids with overlapping one way roads. When you approach a busy intersection, there are no traffic signs or lights. Cars push each other in what appears to be a game of chicken to see who will get in the intersection first. If you hesitate, as I often did because I was lost, you are rewarded with angry honks, dirty looks, and taxis that attempt to overtake you on either side where there are no lanes.
It was crazy and stressful. At last we made it safely to the hotel. I learned later that traffic coming from your right has priority over traffic coming from the left. This is apparently general knowledge and as such the need for clear traffic signs is deemed wasteful.
We were tired, it had been a long road trip north and a challenging ending. Once settled we walked about the historic square which, like many of the towns, is charming. Here you will find lots of restaurants, the city cathedral, and various shops. One of the nice things we have experienced visiting these squares is seeing locals out with their families enjoying the green space in the muted soft light of dusk.
There is a museum here that features a ghastly exhibit.
The Inca empire at its height extended down much of the western border of South America. It’s center was in modern Peru but its influence reached to the Salta region. Much like the Romans of old, the empire simply swallowed up the multitude of smaller indigenous tribes that dotted the region and forced them to pay tribute to the central authority.
This is a vast subject, far beyond my knowledge base, but this museum showcased a dark secret about the cult that ruled the Inca people.
Incas actively practiced ritual child sacrifice.
Rob Bell, a noted speaker and podcaster had an interesting take on this subject. If you look at primitive cultures across the world and throughout history you will often see examples of ritual sacrifice to appease the gods for good harvest or other desires. Throughout history the ante kept getting increased. If a tithe did not get the job done, then how about a live animal? Maybe a dove? If that is not enough how about a lamb. If a lamb was not enough, how about an adult sheep? If that was not enough, how about a bull? If an animal was not enough, how about a virgin woman? If that was not enough…..well how about a child?
Here in this building lay the Children of Llullaillaco. These are 3-4 mummified remains of Inca child sacrifices. The level of preservation was remarkable and tragic. The children, one as young as six, looked like they just were sitting and fast asleep. Another had struggled and was tied up.
Naturally, I did not take pictures of these exhibits. How much all of this went on and at what time in the history of the empire I do not know. Despite the exhibits historical significance, I found it disturbing to look upon.
For those that want to know more, this wikipedia article has a good overview.
We left Salta on Sunday morning for the drive to JuJuy. Other than the fun name this town would only serve as a staging area for some of our last stops of this Episode of “The Road to Bali”.
As we drove north to the border with Bolivia, the landscape became distinctly tropical jungle covering the mountains all around us.
We are at a hotel on the edge of a canyon overlooking the Reyes river. It is a local resort used mainly by the locals and not tourists. The air is humid but the temperature is still mild as rain clouds are moving down to the valley.
We sat on our balcony and watched a thunderstorm roll down the valley to the plains below. The weather turned the adjacent hills into a cloud forest. I have never been to the Amazon jungle, but it is easy to imagine it looked something like this display.
Bolivia sits on a very high plateau with La Paz, it’s capital, claiming its the highest on earth at 11,942 feet. We will not be heading into the country but we will be experiencing some of its varied geography as we get close. Bolivia boasts a stunning variety of ecosystems ranging from tropical rainforests to dry deserts, to savannah. It also hosts a large portion of the Amazon rainforest. As such, Bolivia has a large amount go biodiversity.
By morning, the weather has cleared some. The rain stopped. The clouds still clung to the adjacent mountains. We were unsure if we should proceed north to our destination. After breakfast we decided to press on.
Our goal was Purmamarca, Argentina which has a well known colorful geological formation. As we drove north, after only 40 minutes the tropical jungle gave way to a desert landscape. The large jungle trees were replaced by tall, stately Saguaro Cacti.
As we approached the town we passed a large strip mining operation. The ore was lithium and this mine is one of the largest sources of this mineral in the world. I cannot tell you what , if any ecological protections were in place to protect the surrounding villages and land.
Thirty minutes later we reached Purmamarca. The altitude here is close to 8,000 feet and we definitely felt it walking around. The clouds had cleared giving us gentle warm sunshine. The location lived up to its billing. This is a charming village complete with muddy streets, colorful indigenous housing and stores, an outdoor market, street vendors, stray dogs including a friendly 3 legged puppy, and llamas.
The star attraction was the jagged multicolored rock formation called El Porito. In these various sediment layers you see dark green , grey, purple, yellow, and red colors of brilliant hues. It is as if the earth laid its cards on the table for all to read.
Each color represents a different epoch in time. The purple, grey regions are by far the oldest with an average age of 600 million years. There was an ocean here then.
The strata continue to progress to the youngest, the red rocks. These date to the periods of 21 million to 65 million years ago. Dinosaurs walked on those rocks.
We were lucky the weather had cleared giving us such a beautiful day.
Tomorrow, we fly to our last stop in Argentina. We will spend several days at Iguazo Falls on the Northeast side of the country next to Brazil.
Comments