2 Best Sights in The Northwest, Argentina

Pucará de Tilcara

Fodor's choice

Set on a hill above the left bank of the Río Grande, this fortified, pre-Inca pucará (settlement) is the best-preserved of several in the Quebrada de Humahuaca and the only one that can be visited. Its different areas (some of which have been rebuilt) can be clearly discerned. Allow at least 90 minutes to walk around the site, where an estimated 2,000 Omaguaca once lived, worshipped, and kept their animals. On your way out, turn right at the entrance to the fort for the Jardín Botánico (Botanical Garden): inside you can admire a large array of cacti and other plants. Don't miss the chance to strike the Piedra Campana with a mallet disguised as a stick—true to its name (Bell Stone) it rings like a bell.

About 1½ km (1 mile) south of Tilcara, Tilcara, Jujuy, 4624, Argentina
Sights Details
Rate Includes: 500 pesos, Closed Mon.

Barrancas and Casabindo

From Purmamarca, it's a two-hour drive up into the high-altitude Puna past the Salinas Grandes on RN 9 to visit the rural Andean community of Barrancas (also known as Abdón Castro Tolay) to see cave paintings and petroglyphs. Also stop by the new (2020) Centro de Interpretación Arqueológica de interpretation center and base for archeologists for a glimpse of an 8,870-year-old mummy. The center also houses a fascinating replica of a stone map. 

Continue getting to know the Puna driving north for another hour to Casabindo, a 17th-century Spanish founded village found at 3,606 masl known for the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción church and Toreo de la Vincha, an annual bull fighting contest that takes palace every August 15th in honor of the said virgin in the main square (no bulls are harmed).