Ponchos, pullos & aguayos

Artes de mi pueblo

Entering the store on the corner of Lavalle and Rivadavia, in resplendent Purmamarca, makes you dizzy with so much color. It's a small room, one step below the cobblestone sidewalk.

It is "Artes de mi Pueblo" of don Mauro Vilte, who offers for sale all kinds of characteristic objects from the Puna. He recounts that his entire family are artisans; that they work with pottery, making ceramic plates, ornaments, vases, ocarinas; that he has always been there, because as a child he helped his mother Catalina in a stall in the plaza.

Blankets, ruanas, coats, ponchos, pullos, aguayos, even barracán fabrics of different colours form endless vertical rows exhibiting their most beautiful details. Every now and then, sheep wool "tulmas" appear, dyed in the most diverse and vivid colors. Tulma means ornament and in the Andean culture it is used both in hats and for the identification of llamas, guanacos or vicuñas.

At the top, tapestries with indigenous motifs or the classic landscapes of the north, with the church and the cacti, abound.

The offer is so vast that just behind the typical commercial sweaters -mostly of Peruvian origin and found in every fair around every plaza in the quebrada- you can find real treasures.

Perhaps an ancient poncho, called jalca, woven by hand with natural raw material to face the freezing air of the puna. It is distinguished both by its size, very short (which helped to avoid damaging or dirtying it when carrying out agricultural tasks), and by its originality. The designs exalt the delicacy of the wool, especially when it comes from alpaca or vicuña, a precious raw material that is extremely difficult to obtain. By the way, South America's own camelids are called "auquenidos" and there are four of them: the guanaco, the llama, the alpaca and the vicuña.

Continuing the exploration through the shelves, you can also find a pullo, that rustic blanket made of sheep's wool from old sheep: the more worn, the better. When the natives descend to the village, it is customary to sell their old coats, as it is a tradition to renew them. That is why the oldest fabrics are the favorites, not only for their authenticity but also for the ancestral history contained in their fibers.

It is a real adventure to get one of them, and if the experience takes place in a store as curious as Don Vilte's, so much the better!