Puna (Argentina)
In Argentina, a high desert in the northwestern part of the country is called Puna . It forms a geographical unit with the Bolivian Altiplano and the Chilean Atacama Desert . Most of the Puna is characterized by wide plains at an altitude of 3500 to 4200 m, which are traversed by the mountain ranges of the Andes and by valleys running in north-south direction. The most important cuts are the Quebrada de Humahuaca in the Jujuy province , as well as the Valles Calchaquíes and the Quebrada del Toro in the Salta province .
The word Puna comes from Quechua , means high country and generally designates an Andean altitude .
Administrative structure
Until the middle of the 20th century, the Puna was an independent national territory , the so-called Territorio Nacional de los Andes , whose capital was San Antonio de los Cobres (today the province of Salta ). However, the territory was incorporated into the provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Catamarca in 1943 . Strictly speaking, some smaller plateaus in the western parts of the provinces of La Rioja and San Juan also belong to the Puna, but these areas are completely uninhabited.
climate
The Puna has a dry climate. In the east and north there is a short rainy season in summer, but it is increasingly sparse towards the south-west. There the precipitation is around 50 mm per year, while in the east and north up to 350 mm is possible. The precipitation falls as violent thunderstorms (so-called volcanes ). Continuous rain is very rare, which is why the region is one of the sunniest areas on earth.
population
The region is generally very sparsely populated. The most important cities are La Quiaca (15,000 inhabitants), Humahuaca (12,000 inhabitants), Abra Pampa (8,000 inhabitants) and the test tube town of El Aguilar near the last remaining important mine in the region with 7,000 inhabitants.
Many inhabitants are mestizos or descendants of various Indian tribes ( Kollas , Omaguacas ). In contrast to the Bolivian Altiplano, however, Spanish has largely established itself as the language. Quechua or Aymara are only spoken in a few cases .
economy
For a long time the most important industry was mining . However, the exhaustion of metal deposits has led to a deep crisis in the region, which is reflected in unemployment rates of sometimes over 50%, rural exodus and widespread poverty. For example, the population of the city of Cochinoca fell from 3500 (1950) to 40 (2000). Today, tourism is gradually emerging as an alternative , but it is essentially limited to the spectacular valleys. Large parts of the levels are hardly affected by it and make a very backward impression overall. In many places there is no modern telephone network. Sometimes there is no running water.