Quebrada de las Conchas

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An easy day trip from Cafayate, the Quebrada de las Conchas was incredible. Cafayate has sunshine all year round, and under a clear blue sky, this vast, colourful geologists dream was fantastic. Meaning "valley of the shells", Quebrada de las Conchas has been formed over many many years and used to be underwater, hence there are shell fossils. The landscape is so different from anything else we had seen in Argentina. Our guide told us that Argentina is like five countries in one because it has so many different types of terrain. The only three things the same across Argentina are Spanish, the flag, and a passion for football according to our guide!

Quebrada de las Conchas was almost desert like, with cacti and dry land, and colourful soft rock. We hired a driver for the day and he took us round and was very informative.

Every now and then there were piles of stones which people had built up in order to pay respect to Panchamamma - the God of the earth. The people put food or crops under the earth and burn incense to expel any bad energy, so they will have good crop in the coming year.

The photos are best at giving an impression of this really impressive, beautiful place...

JHG

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