Maimará

Maimará is a working village of adobe houses, small vineyards and vegetable plots strung along the floor of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, and behind it rises the hillside known as the Paleta del Pintor, the Painter's Palette, where the rock is streaked in overlapping bands of rose, cream, green and rust. Unlike the sharply folded ridges elsewhere in the gorge these layers lie in soft diagonal sweeps, and the effect really is of colour brushed across the slope. The village is best known for its cemetery, which climbs a spur of hill on the far side of the valley, its whitewashed tombs stacked in terraces and hung with paper flowers, a striking sight against the coloured rock. High-altitude vineyards around the village have made a name for wines grown well above 2,000 metres.

What you actually see

• La Paleta del Pintor - the streaked hillside rising directly behind the village.
• The hillside cemetery - terraced whitewashed tombs on a spur above the valley.
• The vineyards - small high-altitude plots producing wine above 2,000 metres.
• The village lanes - adobe houses, vegetable gardens and a quiet plaza.

When to go

April to November, the dry months, when the colours are clearest. Morning and late afternoon light bring out the bands; harsh midday sun flattens them. The village is quiet on weekdays and busier when tour buses pass through between Purmamarca and Tilcara.

Honest expectations

Maimará is a place to pause rather than explore, with few services and little to do beyond looking. The cemetery is an active burial ground, so visits call for restraint. Most tours stop only for photographs, which means the village sees a lot of traffic and little custom.

Nearby

Tilcara is a few minutes north; Purmamarca and the Cuesta de Lipán lie to the south.