Putre

Putre's Aymara name, Putiri, means "murmur of waters". When the Spanish arrived it was a busy tambo, a rest house on the Inca road that led to the mines of Potosí and linked the villages of the foothills. During the colonial mining boom it became a centre of farming and a resting place on the way to the mines; Spanish and mestizo families from southern Peru and Bolivia settled from about 1580. A church built in 1670 replaced one destroyed by an earthquake that chroniclers described as covered in gold and silver; the present building is largely of the late 19th century.

With Peruvian independence and the decline of Potosí, many Spanish settlers left. A census of 1750 recorded 233 Aymara inhabitants, and the Peruvian census of 1879 found the population entirely Aymara. During the War of the Pacific the Peruvian army kept oxen here and in the Lluta valley to supply its garrisons at Tacna and Arica. After the peace of 1883, in the years of Chilenisation, Putre was a centre of Peruvian cultural resistance, led by villagers who kept up their campaign into the 1920s.

In the 20th century Putre became the capital of Parinacota Province, created in 1979, and the gateway to Lauca National Park. A deep earthquake of magnitude 6.2 in March 2011 caused only minor damage, and in 2020 solar panels were installed on fifty village houses that were not connected to the power grid.

Putre's history and culture are bound up with the Aymara people, and many families keep fields, llamas and alpacas. The church of San Ildefonso, a National Monument, anchors the calendar: the carnival in February, the feast of the Virgen de la Asunta on 15 August with dances in the streets, and Pachayampe, the potato festival, in early November.

Late November brings the Feria Regional Andina, a fair of livestock, crafts, folk music and tourism from across the altiplano, together with a festival of Andean song. Goods of alpaca wool are sold in the village. The feast of Cristo Rey is marked with a procession to a grotto in the La Barranca ravine, and the village's Aymara name, Putiri, means 'murmur of waters'.

The village is small and close-knit, and visitors are noticed. Travellers on their way to the national park are a familiar sight. A quiet, unhurried manner fits the place, and so does the altitude, which slows everyone down.

The 2024 census counted about 1,500 people in the whole commune of Putre, which covers almost 6,000 square kilometres of mountains and altiplano and includes villages such as Socoroma, Belén, Parinacota and Caquena. The town is the main urban centre of the region's highlands, home to the provincial government, the municipality and the local radio station around the square.

The economy rests on livestock, commerce and tourism. Terraces in the ravine below the village grow alfalfa, oregano, potatoes and vegetables, and llamas and alpacas are raised in corrals at the edge of town, many of them for export. Route 11, which passes above the village on its way to the Bolivian border at Chungará, is the main road link between Arica and Bolivia.

Daily life follows the strong sun and cold nights of the mountains. Mobile and internet connections exist but are slow. Depopulation is the long-running concern: the commune lost nearly a third of its people between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, and has kept shrinking since.

Highland food in Putre is simple and filling. Alpaca meat is a local speciality, and llaita, a freshwater alga gathered in the highlands, is another. The village restaurants serve set menus of Chilean home cooking that begin with soup.

Potatoes are central: the region grows many varieties, and chuño, potatoes freeze-dried by exposing them to the frost of the winter nights and the strong sun by day, is a traditional technique of the Andes. Oregano grown on the terraces of Putre and nearby Socoroma is a distinctive crop of the area; the terraces of the Chilcacahua ravine below the village also grow potatoes, alfalfa and other vegetables. Maize from Socoroma is prized for its sweetness.

The drinks are as much medicine as refreshment: mate de coca, made from coca leaves, and mate de chachacoma, from an Andean plant, are drunk to ease the headaches and breathlessness of altitude sickness, sometimes mixed together.