From Tilcara we headed North for a break from our holiday ;) .. we went to the (nice) Malka hostel, a recommendation from Maaike’s friend Eefje. Another stunning drive through a very eroded landscape.
Tilcara has a nice feel about the place. A pre-colonialisation town with a partly restored Incan town/fort. They made a monument to the archaeologists who investigated the place. They built the monument at the top of the town..
Unfortunately several houses, workrooms and a main square used during the Incaic Period were destroyed to build the monument
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Nowadays, together with the rebuilding of the structures and the vehicle road, the monument is a sign of the different interventions made during the 20th Century. Pucara de Tilcara does not only provide information regarding the people of the past, but also about the development of Archaeology as a discipline.
They also have a lovely botanical garden, featuring lots and lots of cacti!
We also did a quick walk up the hill overlooking the “fort”, which gave a nice view of the prominence of the terrain, as well as the size. There were about 2,000 people living there back in the day.
The following day we did a hike up to Garganta del Diablo, a big canyon a 4km hike from town. It was created during some tectonic upheaval. It looks like there used to be a way to get down to the canyon floor, but it looks like that has been nuked at some point. It’d be fun to abseil down and have a wander about.
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