Ruta 40 y La Cueva de los Manos

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La Ruta 40 (Route 40) is a long, long, long, long road stretching from the North of Argentina to the very South. It’s the equivalent of having a road going from Liverpool to Timbuctu! Our journey from Bariloche to the town of Perito Moreno took us on only a small part of the road yet was 12 hours or so on the bus, a great part of that being on ripio (gravel) roads and therefore not the most comfortable!

The town of Perito Moreno itself is the archetypal one horse town! Other than tourists travelling the Ruta 40 (or a handful going to or from Chile) there is nothing much there. A tourist map takes you to “Swan Lake” or “El Lago de los Cisnes” but it’s rather an over glamorous title. The plaza looks like it has lacked care and attention for many years and the town has an air of faded something, but possibly not elegance nor grandeur!

Our main reason for spending a few nights here was to visit the “Cueva de los Manos”, the ancient “Cave of the Hands”. Our trip took us about 2 hours through the unchanging countryside to the top of the valley of the Rio Pinturas. Then we descended down one side of the canyon with the help of our guide Juan. The sand and volcanic ash underfoot made it tricky in places but we were soon climbing up the other side to the National Park entrance.

The caves themselves are closed off to visitors. This is thanks to countless vandals/tourists who took it upon themselves to leave their own handprints or try to take existing ones away with them. Nevertheless the walkway takes you very close to the rock paintings and they were actually rather impressive. It was interesting to hear explained how the paint was mixed using natural products plus fat and urine (!) then blown through a guanaco shin bone giving a spray paint effect. That’s the reason why most of the hands are in silhouette and are left hands.

We braved the fierce winds to make it safely back to our vehicle. Then we slept most of the way back to Perito Moreno before deciding which of the three restaurants to choose for our dinner! Haute cuisine it is not, but it was a very relaxing place to be.

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Photos

Ruta 40
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Don't look out of the window for too long or you'll fall asleep!

One for my students!
This is a thistle! (Cardo in Castellano?)

Comments

[Juanma_Argentina]

nice pics
it is a Cardo!! good spanish! =)