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Published: June 16th 2017
I Was There
Behind me is the winding road leading from Merlo up to the top.Geo: -32.35, -65.0333
I'd known there were people living in wild places like this, but I'd never had them cook me lunch.
Bob and I took a 4x4 tour into the Sierras de los Comechingones, the mountains outside of Merlo that form a natural border between the provinces of Cordoba and San Luis. We drove to the top-- 2200 meters, or 7,217 feet, and hiked to a beautiful waterfall from there.
The top stretches out forever. This sucker is w i d e, none of this pointy top business here, the tops of these mountains extend for miles--7 km in width and hundreds of kilometers in length.
And they're rocky. I don't mean like the Rocky Mountains are rocky, I mean like somebody dumped a pile of rocks on top of bedrock rocky. But somehow there's enough soil for grasses, so the entire mountain range is green. In this dry area, these slopes are spring green with waving grasses--the lower elevations with acres of white plumed giants that dance in the wind with such grace I could watch them for hours--and on the top with a shorter grass that forms punctuation marks amongst the creeping ground cover.
It's beautiful, wild, desolate, harsh...and this hand-made road definitely
Lunch Spot
This shepherd family makes a some extra cash by providing authentic lunches for hikers visiting their land. Entry fees help him maintain the road which has to be practically rebuilt after every rain storm where it runs through the soft topsoil. During a heavy rain his road just runs off down the mountain--except for the parts he's chiseled out of solid bedrock. requires a 4x4. A very slow 4x4 because in places it's barely there and in others it's solid bedrock. And bedrock just goes where it wants to. You just deal with it...slowly. Hand made means no Cats, Shawn. No heavy equipment at all--just shovels and picks and some very sore backs.
I can not get over the stark beauty--this mountain is unlike any I've ever seen in the US. There are pockets of black soil over 2' deep that erode away easily in the torrential rains, and other spots of coarse sand, but mostly it's just acre after acre of rock and grass.
We hiked for an hour or so to the top of Salto del Tigre, Tiger Waterfall. This lovely little creek we'd seen off and on our way falls 55' forming what looks like an equally deep hole. While we sat there enjoying this picturesque scene a woman and girl rode up to the creek, crossed and continued over the hill on our side trailing seven dogs. Seven. Does someone bring seven dogs and two horses on vacation with them?
No, they live here. Here on this wind scoured mountain top with little sign of any habitation. Doesn't it get lonely
up here, I ask myself. There's no sign of anyone--no power cables, no buildings, no snack shops, no phone lines--nothing at all to indicate another human for as far as the eye can see. Only the wind. But here they are--mother and daughter on horseback. The girl, Claudio said, rides two hours to school each day, because this is not close to anything. But only in summer. In winter there is too much snow and ice--it's too dangerous for a horse, so school is only held during the warmer months.
He tells us stories of the sheep, too. The mountain is perfect sheep and goat country, and we saw small flocks all along the way here. Sheep dogs are trained in a most ingenious way. While still very small puppies they're fed sheep's milk and put into the pens with the sheep until they think that sheep is their mommy. That way, while out with them all day long, since they think they're one of them, they're very good protectors. And the puma, while not being afraid of the dogs, per se, know that where there are dogs there are people, and they stay away.
Sheep eat all day long but
the dogs, Claudio explains, are hungry at day's end and head for home, bringing the sheep along with them to spend the night in their rock corrals. Once again, the pumas stay away because the dogs are in there with the sheep.
It was 2:00 when we walked through the empty sheep corrals, past the skins and saddles hanging ready to ride, past riotous cosmos planted along the wall and through the hut's front door. There were two long tables waiting for eaters. We sat down in this room of thick rock walls and the food appeared. Bowls of hot empanadas, cold crisp salad, soda and beer from the wind powered fridge, and platters of grilled sheep from the barrel shaped earthen oven out the back door. Everyone but us were 20-somethings and could they eat!
This whole mountain top is privately owned and it really thrills me to see that these humble shepherds have found a way to make money off the tourists without compromising their treasured land.
There was no trash at the falls and in that bedrock, not even any footprints. In fact, no sign at all that another human had ever been there. The land is pristine.
Claudio Finds Medicinal Plants
Our guide, Claudio, was an human encyclopedia of information on the area, but not only plants. He knew everyone, too. What a joy to find such a beautiful place they haven't figured out how to screw up yet.
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