Cochinoca

Cochinoca is a small mining town in the eponymous department Cochinoca in the Province of Jujuy in the far north-west Argentina. The settlement is located in the Puna at 3552 meters above sea level and has 75 inhabitants ( INDEC, 2001).

History

The place Cochinoca was founded in the early 17th century and had towards the end of that century between 600 and 800 inhabitants. A number of infrastructural measures downgraded the major pre-Columbian times to mining town in time to insignificance. Before the Spaniards led the trade route of the Incas, the Camino del Inca, through the town. For a time Cochinoca was the Departamentshauptstadt. The relocation of the highway at the place past had the consequence that the capital of dignity for the department of Abra Pampa Cochinoca was passed. The dwindling importance of mining and the route of the railway line east over the place that fell until 1915 on 45 inhabitants the population. The place has never recovered from his loss of function again.