Paseo de los colorados: Purmamarca Travel Guide (4.7★)

A red maze at the village edge

Purmamarca’s adobe houses stop and the earth turns red. That is where Paseo de los Colorados begins. A dirt road leaves the village and curls behind it, through towers, fins and gullies of iron-stained sediment that the wind and rare heavy rains have carved over a very long time.

Tall cardón cacti stand on the slopes like fence posts. The track itself is packed earth and gravel, wide enough for a car. On foot, you are close enough to see the layered bands in the rock, from deep oxblood to pale ochre.

Most visitors photograph the Cerro de los Siete Colores from the plaza and leave. The loop gets far less traffic, so walking it often feels like having the hills to yourself.

Finding the trailhead

Purmamarca is about 65 km north of San Salvador de Jujuy. It sits a few kilometres west of Ruta Nacional 9, on Ruta 52, the road that climbs on to Salinas Grandes and the Paso de Jama into Chile. Buses from Jujuy city stop in the village, and the whole place is small enough to cross on foot in minutes.

From the main plaza, head towards the western edge of town and follow signs for the Paseo de los Colorados. The street turns to dirt and the red walls close in almost straight away. Ask at your lodging which direction they suggest, as both ends of the loop come back into the village.

What the loop looks like

The circuit runs for roughly 3 km. On the outer side it opens to views back over the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a valley listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage cultural landscape in 2003. The inner side is a corridor of eroded formations, some taller than a house, with narrow gullies running off between them.

Look for:

• Crumbling red pinnacles close to the track, best seen in side light
• Cardón cacti, the columnar species used for the beams and doors of Andean churches
• Glimpses of the Cerro de los Siete Colores and its striped slopes
• Rooftops of Purmamarca from above as the loop turns back towards town

Allow 1–1.5 hours at an easy walking pace, more if you stop for every photo. A car does it in minutes. The ground is gentle, but the altitude makes every short rise feel steeper.

Light, season and timing

The path is open 24 hours, but it has no lighting. Plan to be off it before dark. The best colour comes when the sun is low, so early morning and late afternoon are the times to walk, and the midday glare flattens the reds.

The dry months, roughly April to November, are the most reliable. Summer brings the rainy season, when storms can turn the gullies into fast-running mud. Winter days are sunny and clear, but the temperature falls sharply once the sun drops behind the ridge.

On the track: pace, cars and the rock

The loop is shared ground, so a few habits make it easier for everyone.

• Walk the edge. Cars and tour vans use the same track. Keep to one side and expect dust when they pass.
• Stay off the formations. The rock is soft sediment that breaks under a boot. Climbing it speeds up the erosion that made it, and loose pieces fall.
• Go slowly at altitude. Purmamarca sits at about 2,300 metres. If you came up from Jujuy city that morning, walk slower than you want to and drink often.
• Carry everything. There are no shops or taps along the loop. Bring water, a hat and sunscreen, because the sun is strong at this height even when the air feels cool.
• Greet people. Some residents live along the edges of the route. A “buen día” goes a long way in a village this small.

There is no ticket booth or ticket office, so no queue either. Just start walking.

Pairing it with the village

The loop fits easily into half a day in Purmamarca. Afterwards, walk back to the plaza and its artisan stalls, where woven textiles, llama-wool goods and ceramics hang under the trees. On the corner stands the Iglesia de Santa Rosa de Lima, a whitewashed adobe church from the 17th century with a ceiling built from cardón wood.

If you have a car and another morning, Ruta 52 climbs over the Cuesta de Lipán to the white salt flats of Salinas Grandes. To head north instead, Ruta 9 runs up the Quebrada past Tilcara and on to Humahuaca. The Paseo de los Colorados works best early in a stay, before the bigger day trips, while you are still getting used to the altitude.