Sunrise in Belén
The AOA Missions Route in Arica & Parinacota: “We visited Codpa, Guañacagua, Belén, Timar, Tignamar, and Parinacota. We marveled at the architectural traces that remain from centuries ago and also at the restoration and enhancement work being done by the Altiplano Foundation.”
Two centuries-old temples protect the small village and open their doors to welcome visitors. A patient restoration has enhanced the value of these spaces and their tradition.
By: Mónica Álvarez de Oro & Miguel Agustín Contreras
A cobblestone street, which begins at a simple archway leading to the school, climbs gently uphill, framed by continuous low mud houses. Doors of noble wood painted in bright colors, denoting years of family life, lead to a place where large trees cut the perspective. There the space opens up and, after the old house where the town's health center is located, an earthen tower with random perforations and gently rotated in its orthogonality, rises majestically in the center of the plaza. The small San Santiago church is a white volume, simple, but finely adorned with a light stone pediment that serenely awaits each visitor. The broad smile of its caretaker opens and illuminates its neat and refined interior, where the traditional and colorful marquetry altar raises our eyes to highlight each of its images that have remained intact for centuries. The patient restoration and conservation work carried out has been a collective effort that, led by the Altiplano Foundation, allows us to delve into the social, economic, and cultural history of these Andean people. On the Ruta de la Plata, from Potosi, this oasis of peace, rest, and services remains, which allows us to appreciate the effort and love of many people for the life of the Andean towns. Time has been frozen between mountains and ravines; Belén, a witness of years of history, seems to have never aged. Restoration & Tranquility A remarkable urbanistic intervention created a magnificent civic space, simple but interconnected with the original Church of the Virgen de la Candelaria, located on an upper esplanade, now converted into a cultural space. Shiny steps make the plaza a continuous ascent composed of adobe and stone bell towers that enhance its value. Contemplating from the top has ensured the dominance of the valley landscape with bright purple sunsets for centuries. Neither can the sunrise lights over the gentle hills be omitted, when the ochre, terracotta, and white tones of the architecture are integrated into the quietness of the town, now with little urban activity, but with a great cultural heritage. At dusk, the warmth of the plaza and its illuminated monuments highlight the hierarchy of its spaces and the appropriate urban planning and design decisions that extended and harmonized two previously separate temples. Climbing its ancient bell tower allows a moment of expansion and mastery of the landscape that transports you and makes you feel the value of the encounter between landscape, architecture, and ancestral culture. It is impossible not to visit Belén and, even less, to remain impassive in front of the great effort that possesses the remarkable value of under- standing the patrimonial restoration as an integrated act of buildings, arts, and community life. Belén is a place to experience Andean life at its maximum integration between town, monuments, and families. !
Chungará & Something Else
The beauty of these places is so impressive that the original settlers explained it with a legend.
By: Luz María Pérez
Climbing slopes and curves from 3,270 meters above sea level in the beautiful town of Belén, we enter the Lauca National Park. As we gradually lose cell phone signal, passengers are warned to “get ready for what's coming” and, behind a hill, begins to appear the base of the Parinacota volcano and its summit in a dark blue tone with a dense immaculate white layer. It is followed by the Pomerape volcano, both shared with Bolivia and exceeding 6,200 meters above sea level. Further on, we can see other hills with different colors and a plain of bushes, thatch, and groups of young and agile vicuñas that are afraid of us as we pass by. We got closer and closer to this deep blue lake, surrounded by a ground covered with native flora in which lichens and yaretas with a vivid and intense yellowish green stand out. Incidentally, the first sighting of yareta, near 4,000 meters above sea level, was a surprise for everyone. This shrub is self-pollinating, slow-growing, and dense, in order to avoid heat loss. We stop at the tambo of Lake Chungará, an Aymara word meaning moss on a rock. You can feel the 4,559 meters above sea level. Walking along a well-demarcated path, which should not be exceeded, in the water, we observe a large number of different-sized ducks, but we do not see flamingos or parinas, birds that are commonly associated with the lake. It is not necessary to see them because the ensemble, and that which we do not perceive with our eyes, gives us a pure and peaceful atmosphere, which caused several of us to remain silent, contemplating, or just closing our eyes. For my part, a kind of Zen state helps me to handle the puna and to quietly enjoy the landscape and the clear sky with those fat white clouds, sisters of the volcano's summit. The Parinacota and Pomerape vulcanoes, the payachatas, are the protagonists of a romantic Inca legend that describes a prince and a princess in love, who were killed because of family feuds. It is said that nature mourned their deaths so much that it flooded the villages and left the Cotacotani lagoons and Lake Chungará as testimony, which provide a memorable literary message; but it is not necessary to know the legend to understand the magic of the place. Visiting it is not to be missed. !
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