Sunday, January 22, 2012; Day 3 of Overland Adventure

We woke up at 5:00 am to go workout and they don’t exercise on Sundays! Good Plan! So we arrived at the breakfast buffet early! We boarded the bus at 7:30 and left for our full day tour at Humahuaca – it was 520 kilometers which is 300 and some miles!

Our first stop was Pumamarca, “7 Color  Mountains”.  We stopped and shopped at the native artisans.  

Back on the bus…our 2nd stop was Tilcara.  First, we learned about the llamas, then later had one for lunch…hmmmm! 

We hiked to the ancient Indian ruins.

The cactus would dry up and they would use it for their roof.  Their building system was 2 ply so way back then, they were in tune with insulation factors.  Later, when we went to the market, I bought a bracelet from a local made from cactus needles.

As you can see, the Indians were very small people.  When their babies were born, when their skull was still pliable, they wrapped their head with 2 boards so they had elongated, cone shaped heads.

 

Lunch was Llama, lamb, and a roots, another zero calorie meal for me!  They performed their local music for us as we ate.

The last stop was Humahuaca, which is 10,000 feet above sea level.  The hike was tough to breathe, but we made it to the top!  We boarded the bus for the long haul back to the Sheraton – 21 VERY tired tourists!