On Saturday 3 October, families from several hamlets of the Quebrada del Toro, the valley that climbs from Salta towards the Puna, met in the hall of the Qhapaq Ñan inn in Santa Rosa de Tastil. The invitation had travelled by hand, by word of mouth and on social media, and the room filled with people from settlements scattered along the valley.
The meeting was the first step of a project to build a network of rural community tourism in the Quebrada: a way for the families who live there to receive travellers and add an income to the work that is already part of their lives. Kallpa supports the initiative alongside the Fundación Alfarcito, and brings to it what it knows about tourism.
Laura Scaro, a founding partner of Kallpa, gave part of the presentation, which went through what such a network involves, and the room answered with questions, ideas and a good deal of goodwill. To close, it showed rural and community tourism already working elsewhere in the Northwest: the Red de Turismo Campesino in Cafayate, and the community projects of Maimará and Caspalá, in Jujuy. The day began with coffee, tea, mate and homemade bread and cakes, and ended with empanadas to celebrate the start.
Each family took home the printed presentation and a booklet of questions to answer before the next meeting. The meetings will move from one hamlet to another; the next is on Saturday 14 November in Gobernador Solá.
Santa Rosa de Tastil is on the road from Salta to San Antonio de los Cobres and the Salinas Grandes, and travellers already stop there for the ruins of Tastil, one of the largest pre-Hispanic settlements in Argentina. The network will bring the families of the valley into that journey; when it is ready to receive travellers, you will read about it here.
