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Published: February 23rd 2007
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WEEK 12 CHILECITO
Chilecito a town of 43,000 is located 3 hours from La Rioja. Again the journey was through desert but there were impressive red sandstone cliffs to the west and a stretch which had wonderful red sandy desert reminiscent of Australia.
Chilecito owes its origin to the mining of gold and silver. Output peaked in the early 20 century with the building of a 36 kilometer cable car in 1905 with 280 towers which carried workman on a 4 hour journey to the mines in the high Andes 3510 metres higher than the town itself.
Chilecito lies within a wine and olive growing belt and it was fantastic to have locally produced wines, extra virgin olive oil, olives, grapes, walnuts, cloves of garlic the size of grapefruits and even fresh pomegranates picked from local bushes. It also had the best fillet steak I have ever tasted! Who could ask for more!
Leaving the internet cafe at 10pm I noticed that plaza was busy and that seats had been arranged by the out door stage. I went back to the hostel to eat ( more fillet steak!) and returned to the plaza to find it
crowded with families and young children. At 11pm the show was opened by 3 tiny girls dancing. They were so small it was hard to see them over the spot lights! They were followed by older girls dancing and then young couples dressed in traditional dress. The ladies in long flowing blue dresses.The men in pleated knickerbockers, long soft leather black boots which crinkled round the ankles, black short jackets, blue shirts and black hats. First the couples danced and then the men danced individually to show off their skills. Their legs were like rubber as they quickly kicked out in all directions and stamped their feet on the stage with rapid noisy movements. Quite impressive except that the stage had not been swept and clouds of dust rose all around them!
Then music. Wonderful guitar playing and singing. At midnight the stage filled with local dignitaries and everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' accompanied by the by fireworks. Then the festivities continued. However by 2pm when the Spanish comedians started - I was a bit lost and weary and decided to go home.who knows what time the show ended!
I subsequently discovered that it was Chilecito's 292 birthday
and we had arrived for a weekend of celebrations and festivals. Monday was a local holiday and even the ATM was not functioning!
On Monday evening at 7pm everyone gathered in the plaza. Initially lots of political speeches by local government officials followed by a parade for 2 hours of local groups active in the community. A strong military presence - followed by the police and firemen. Then came flag waving representatives from schools and colleges, arts and dancing societies and many sports groups. These were followed by tractors from local fincas handing out bunches of grapes, a cart with a pig, goat and sheep, vegetable growers and wine producers. Then came the floats headed by the Talampaya National Park float which had a blown up cactus so high that it took some time to negotiate under huge banners which hung across the road. There was a bit of excitement when local protesters with banners against the proposed re- opening the local gold mines on the grounds of contamination tried to join the parade. Initially the police made a line to prevent them- but then let them through. In fact they got the loudest cheers of all as obviously
most people are against the proposal. The floats were followed by gauchos. Dressed in traditional dress often with ladies riding side saddle on the back or with one or two small children perched on high the parade of horses was wonderful.
I discovered last year at the Revolution Day parade in Mexico City that the horses which seemed to be walking crossed legged - were not actually misbehaving as I thought . but were being put through intricate paces by their skilled gauchos! With lights flashing and all sirens blaring came the fire engines, although the old fire jeep refused to start and had to be pushed into a side street. Equally noisy were a dozen police vehicles and fire ambulances. At 10pm I went back to hostel- but I guess the festivities continued again into the early hours.
We had hoped to do more wine tasting but the local winery was closed on the Sunday and on Monday they were closed because of the festival. However we did smell the fermenting grapes. Nearby we discovered a chocolate shop which was just being opened. We were invited in and had a few free samples, a sandwich and a coca cola. Fe who is the chocolate expert was most impressed but even small fondants were very expensive at 25 p each - much more expensive weight for weight than my fillet steak!
A visit to a local museum in an old colonial house was interesting. Geological maps and rock samples indicated the former mineral wealth of the area. Old photographs of the town and cable cars were informative, a few examples of indiginous pottery together with a few moth eaten stuffed birds and a very disappointing section on the aspects of Talampaya National Park. However the garden was beautiful with vines (the grapes were just ready to eat!), sweet chestnut trees, fig trees, pomegranate bushes and olive trees.The garden was in a little pocket of lowland totally surrounded by desert with cacti growing on granitic hills. Amazing what a bit of water can do!
I had an enjoyable bus journey back to La Rioja talking to lovely spanish speaking lady and a 15 year old boy, Nico who was enjoying speaking English.
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