If you go north of San Salvador de Jujuy, you reach this natural path leading up to the high plateau. Colorful landscapes are the perfect background for this patchwork of small villages, which are sprinkled with adobe houses, historical chapels, and Pre-Hispanic ruins. Time seems to have stopped in the Quebrada de Humahuaca (Humahuaca Gorge).
One of the most beautiful towns in this region is Purmamarca, an indigenous little village surrounded by the Cerro de los Siete Colores (Hill of the Seven Colors), which, on its colorful strata, reflects the different geological ages. Further North, in Maimará, you will come across "La Paleta del Pintor" (The Painter's Palette), a stretch of land where mountains are "painted” with fringes of different colors. One of the main attractions in this gorge is the Pucará of Tilcara, a pre-Columbian fortified city built by the native American Omaguaca people. Every June 21, the day of the winter solstice, people gather by the Monolith of the Tropic of Capricorn to celebrate the Inti Raymi (Sun Festival), an ancient Aymará celebration carried out to welcome the new farming cycle. Humahuaca was founded by the Spaniards by the end of the 16th Century. Its church and the Museo Folklórico Regional (Regional Folkloric Museum) provide a complex overview on the uses and customs of the region. 12 Km from Humahuaca, you can visit the mysterious ruins of the Coctaca farming terraces, where you will be met by a checkerboard pattern of pircas, or stone walls.
Quebrada de Humahuaca (Province of Jujuy) was declared World Cultural Landscape by UNESCO on July 2, 2003.