many of its citizens to explore their own country, a cheaper alternative to flying abroad. It didn’t take long for sophisticated Porteños, as residents of Buenos Aires are called, to discover Jujuy. At the same time, the rising popularity of nearby Salta’s wineries started attracting worldly visitors to the region. The result has been an unexpected syncretism of cosmopolitan culture and age-old traditions, two very different worlds gradually embracing each other.
“Maybe this is one of the things we have the crisis to thank for,” Facundo Arana, an actor from Buenos Aires who was visiting Jujuy in May, said of the region’s breakthrough as a tourist destination. “Jujuy cannot be put into words; it seeps in through your eyes, your ears and your soul.”
Mr. Arana, a tall, blond and slightly scruffy heartthrob, was touring the north on a motorcycle while a camera crew documented his journey for a show promoting health awareness. He said the Quebrada de Humahuaca’s silent beauty captivated him during his first trip to Jujuy a decade ago.
Back then, travelers were in for a rustic journey, with few options for accommodations along the 10 small towns that flank the ravine.
Now, about a dozen boutique lodgings have opened in or near the 100-mile route, most of them decorated by the design firm Usos. Started in 2001 by the local architects Carlos Gronda and Arturo de Tezanos Pinto, Usos draws inspiration from the history, traditions and idiosyncrasies of the region to create folkloric-chic furniture, objects and installations.
At Huacalera, a roadside ranch in the heart of the Quebrada that was converted last year into a hotel and spa, Usos outfitted the lobby with three boldly colored round tables backed