The north-western region is a place of high peaks - here is Aconcagua, "the stone sentinel" - snow-capped volcanoes, plateaus, dry gullys and deserts. Under clear blue sky, small villages let the seasons pass by quietly, only interrupted by the carnivals, Indian markets and the worship of "Pachamama" or Mother Earth who provides maize and the pastures where the llamas and guanacos graze.

Deep dry gullys climb up to the Puna (heights) via dusty routes to lost villages and ruins from Pre-Hispanic times in the land of the Incas or "Sons of the Sun". This is why they say that here South America touches the sky.