Laguna Blanca

Located in the Puna region of Catamarca, north of the Belén department and on the road to Antofagasta de la Sierra, the Laguna Blanca territory is a natural and cultural area covering 770,000 hectares, protected as a biosphere reserve, created specifically to safeguard the wild vicuña population.

It possesses great archaeological and historical value, as numerous rock art sites have been discovered, especially engravings and petroglyphs on cliffs and in caves, belonging to pre-Incan cultures. This led to the creation of the Comprehensive Museum of the Biosphere Reserve.

Several indigenous communities live in this area, maintaining a traditional pastoral lifestyle using ancestral techniques. Every year in November, the chaku takes place, a community-based and sustainable practice in which the vicuñas are sheared and released back into the wild. The resulting fiber is used to weave exquisite textiles.