COCTACA

10 km east of Humahuaca you will find the Gorge or Quebrada of Coctaca, from where you can reach this area, as it forms part of the Quebrada Circuit by a dirt road. Here the roads branch off to take you to Ronque, Siquiza, Rodero or Pucará. The area is flat, surrounded with mountainous areas and covered in giant cacti. Coctaca is famous for its old pre-Hispanic andenes or cultivation terraces.

Today you will find the essentials of any town: a church, a primary school, a medical post and small police station. The daily life of its people is wrapped up in a mythical past and a grand landscape.

In the area you will find an archaeological site of the Omaguaca civilisation, which achieved very important agricultural and ceramic developments. There are the remains of several dwellings, long time fallen into ruins, but its most spectacular feature is its cultivation terraces, which are perfectly visible and the largest in the region. This is a small valley (35 km long and 12.5 km wide) with an exceptionally fertile soil.

It is very obvious to the visitor's eye that the pre-Hispanic cultures that lived here made a major engineering work in order to get the most out of their water supply to irrigate their intensive style agriculture. In this context it is to the purpose to remember that these people almost lived without eating any meat.

Everywhere one can see how the fields have been carefully cleaned of stones and rocks which have then been laid out in long wide walls, with the largest ones used to lay out the sustaining walls of the terraces, which are of two types: the most common have a height of around 30 cm (minimum height needed to contain the soil) and the others are up to 1.5 m high They were possibly used to protect the young plants from the wind and to offer them shade in order to avoid a too rapid evaporation of the water.

Location: In the gorge - Quebrada by the same name, east of Humahuaca.
How to get there: By dirt road.
Best Season for Visitors: All year round, although the road may suffer interruptions after heavy rains during the southern hemisphere summer.
Performances that can be enjoyed: Observation, photography, treks and horseback riding.