Quilmes and the PachaMama museum

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I need one more day!!! In the morning I got up early and moved down 3 blocks, to my beautiful new place, the recently opened hotel Posada Santos, where I am the only guest 😊. Maria Angelica gave me a lovely room, where I simply dropped my stuff, resisted the temptation to step down from my terrace straight into the pool, and left again, for the ruins.

The drive into the province of Tucuman is beautiful!
I stopped several times, got out of the car - what a silence and width of space!
I simply watched, listened and enjoyed. And was happy again about travelling alone. Stop any second you want to. And miss out on places that may be nice on your own decision, since you cant see everything anyway.

In a small village I passed by a cemetary and opened the door to stroll around. What an impressive and peaceful location to be resting forever. In another town I had a dog sitting in the middle of my part of the road. Took some photos - of course - and at some time it moved. I was road-controlled in another village for license and car papers. Again, not many cars on the road. And it was a great road, so the approx. 60km were done in a nothing (apart from my extra stops). And today with aircon 😊.

The Quilmes (living there before the Inca spread out, and later being taken away by the Spanish) ruins were nice and interesting to, but more impressive was the story behind it (see Travel Data section). I stayed for about an hour and also visited the nice hotel, which would be worth a stay, too, because of the peaceful surrounding, and the site, and the hotel itself, its very specific location, and its art, by Hernan Cruz.

Who also did the PachaMama museum in Amaicha del Valle, where I went.

On the road I picked up Melissa and Josh from Seattle, only meters later an indio woman who wanted to go the same way.

The museum is fantastic! See pics at my photo albums, once they are finished, and Travel Data. We stayed for about an hour and strolled through the large area, before heading back to Cafayate.

On the map I saw that I was relatively close to the famous Aconcagua mountain. Hey - but no, that would have meant a few more hours South. Next time... there always has to be something still left for a next time. And this area will have a next time! Soon!

I was sooo tired (exhausting travel days, but also still the lack of sleep in Buenos Aires I have to catch up with, probably not before being back in Germany), but of course wanted to take advantage of "my garden & pool", so took a deckchair and relaxed, swam a round, and started to work on the webpages.

The garden of the hotel has as flowers around the pool huge basil plants, then on the side there is a little terrace with salads, flowers, more herbs and tomatoes.

I need an extra day. The day of doing nothing, next to a pool and a cool space. Such as this gorgeous room I have here. With luckily no other guests that would look into my room, while I have the 2-wing door wide open, lay on the bed and see the pool and the mountain range in the back. Stunning.

After some rest I strolled again through town, since there were several places I still wanted to check. I went to see the Bodegas Nanni who produce artesan (small production) organic (!) wine. The door is a huge barrel, nobody was inside, just took some pics.
Went on the see the "vivero el cactus" thinking that it was a place where they sell cactusses, while it was rather a private house with a beautiful cactus garden in the frontyard. Then I searched and found the mysterious Rusty-K hostel that had been strongly recommended in the web several times without me being able to locate it - by people different from me. I finished my little round entering the strangest "supermarket" I have seen in my life, "Super Humiga", they sell heaps of hey, cactus, animal skins, thick wool, herbs and spices, freshest cheese, alcohol made out of a tree and all this in an amazing athomsphere, with 3 teethless men sitting around, obviously stoned or drunk, one singing nice songs - see photos.

Met with my new travel partners for dinner and went to the nice place I had passed by before, el Cayote, where I enjoyed a Cornejo a la Espanola - Spanish Rabbit. Came back to my cute hotel and had to smile at the guard: a little harmless dog rolled together, in front of the main entrance, nearly smiling at me.

Early to bed, ready for a 12 hour sleep, doors wide open towards the garden and pool to enjoy the fresh air instead of aircon. Well, not according to the animals outside. Hey, I WAS in the nature now, amazing. Next to the hotel is a water reservoir, so hundreds of frogs entertaining. Then the dogs of the village started a never-ending conversation among each other, sometimes louder, sometimes less noisy, incl the one from the neighbour howling. And of course, never missing: The one and only moskito. That kept me awake until 5am at least... What a pity....

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