Parroquia Virgen del Carmen

This guide to the Parroquia Virgen del Carmen pushes back on the guidebooks that call it centuries-old Baroque architecture, tracing Aguas Calientes back to a handful of farming families camped by the river in 1901 and a railway work camp that only became an official district in 1941. It covers what that youth means for a plaza built on top of old bunkhouses and mule sheds, and the geological reports describing this gorge as prone to landslides and rockfalls that have already caused damage nearby. Locals still carry the statue of the Virgin of Carmen through these narrow streets every July sixteenth, brass bands echoing off the cliffs above the square.