Bush food in Coctaca

Elvio, our guide at the museum, mentioned pre-Incan ruins a few miles from Humahuaca at an indigenous community called Coctaca, so I went out there earlyish one morning. Feeling a little conspicuous in this tiny outpost town, I parked the big motorbike on the deserted town square and walked around looking for someone to whom I could announce my presence, and whose permission I could ask to visit the ruins. Eventually I was directed to the house of a very small and gentle old woman, who invited me into her courtyard. We had a short conversation about ourselves and the place, then she urged me to stay put as she went to find me some tour guides.

Ariel and Dario, about eight and six, came bolting up the lane. With their grandmother's blessing, the three of us got on the bike and went up to the ruins.

The agricultural terraces themselves are interesting enough, built as a central production facility for quinoa, the sacred grain of the pre-Incans, and for this reason destroyed by the invading Spanish. Ariel gave an explanation of the cultivation and export of grains from here, and also told me that people in the old days only lived this high up in the mountains in the summer. He also told me about local rock art sites, and offered to take me there the next day, as long as I could get him out of school!

What they were most into though was pegging rocks at the cactus fruit, hanging from the plants a couple of metres out of reach. We had a laugh getting some down, then eating the sweet fruit, called pasacama.

I dropped them at their gran's place, promising them copies of the photos I'd taken, then went back to town. Late in the afternoon Em and I both went back to Coctaca, both to deliver the photos and to spend the early evening in the ruins, throwing rocks and eating pasacama.