Curahuara de Carangas

From outside it is a plain whitewashed adobe church with a thatched roof and a low bell wall, standing in an empty altiplano village at around 3,900 metres. Inside, every surface, walls, ceiling, arches, is covered in painted decoration applied from the late sixteenth century onward: biblical scenes, angels, saints, apocalyptic imagery and ornament, in earth pigments over adobe, executed by local painters working in a colonial idiom with Andean elements running through it. The volume and preservation have earned it the name the Sistine Chapel of the Andes, which oversells the comparison but conveys the surprise. The village has almost nothing else and the church is usually locked, so finding the keyholder is part of the visit.

What's there

• Wall-to-ceiling frescoes - painting covering every interior surface.
• Andean colonial imagery - biblical scenes with local elements throughout.
• The plain exterior - adobe and thatch giving no hint of the inside.
• The empty altiplano - the village standing alone at 3,900 metres.

When to go

May to September for the roads; the altiplano is bitterly cold and the wet season makes side roads difficult. Daylight matters as there is little lighting inside.

Good to know

The church is normally locked and access depends on finding the keyholder in the village, which can take time or fail. Photography inside is usually not permitted to protect the pigments. There are no facilities. The comparison with the Sistine Chapel sets the wrong expectation for scale.

Nearby

Sajama national park lies west; Patacamaya is northeast.