RUTA 40 AND CUEVAS DE LAS MANOS

---

Got up quite early to catch the 6:45 am bus, i asked the reception dude if it was safe to walk San Martin street that early in the am, he said should be fine. Arrived at the meeting point with 3 other people there, a Mexican couple and a Japanese/Australian girl. The bus as usual was late, we have the big bus all to ourselves. The ride to El Bolson was fantastic scenery wise. We picked up a French woman there and off we go, i fell aslepp most of the time and woke up realizing the terrain had changed to dry treeless desolation, only thick mounds of yellow grasses grow and small shrubberies. But the colors were amazing. we stopped at a town called Gobernador Costa to gas up and have some lunch. From there we went on to Rio Mayo for another gassing up until we reached the town of Perito Moreno. We checked in at Hotel Belgrano. All of us in the bus (5) decided we want to do the excursion to Cuevas de las manos so we talked to the driver and at dinner the booking agent came. In Bariloche, the lady in the desk said the season is over i cant do it anymore, lies!!

Went to walk at the grocery store to buy some provisions for tomorrow, snacks, water. Back at the hotel the bus from Chlaten arrived and i found 3 new roomates, a Korean and 2 Spaniards, they said weather in Chalten had been nice and hiking was great so am quite excited about it now after all the mist and rain in Bariloche. There was something funky smelling in our room and it is not our shoes, the sewage system runs through the room and there is a covered hole right below where my bed is! The toilet was ensuite so i guess it exits out from there. I covered it with plastic bag but the smell the whole night was stil there, needless to say it was an awful sleep for me. Got up at 630am to be ready to be picked up for the Cuevas.
3 hour trip on rugged roads, We got there and paid the entrance fee, and a guide came with us we donned a head gear to protect ourselves from falling rocks. The Guide cannot speak good English although some of our group cant understand Spanish, she just said ask questions if you dont understand anything, how about everything?? I did understand her though and was not really interested in her description of the cave, i just want to take photos and read up on it later. it was quite underwhelming to say the least for 180 pesos we paid to get there(incl. entrance fee) not worth it, the paintings we nice and interesting and the surrounding canyon impressive but other than those you dont see much, driving here for 3 hours just to see the paintings, hmm, think if i knew better i would have not done it.

We got dropped off at a point called Bajo Caracoles, where there is a small store where i bought some empanadas, while waiting for the bus to Chalten. The trip supposed to include lunch box but nothing!! Quite annoyed at that. The bus came and we asked if we could see out luggages in the trunk just to be sure it got picked up in Perito moreno. Another looong drive stopping briefly for a snack 2 hours before Chalten. When we arrived in the area we can see the white tops of the Fitz Roy range, we stopped before entering the city to gaze and marvel at this amazing mountain, very cold and windy. We arrived at Rancho Grande and checked in and had some dinner of burger and chips, Yuko the Aussie girl joined me. My roomate is an American student named Alex studying in Buenos Aires, he is from Baltimore and quite entertaining guy, we talked about everything including politics and his views on Bush and Obama, and empanadas and parilladas!! He is only here for one day and is at a lost for word to describe the beauty of this town, the weather tomorrow supposedly is bad but we shall see, as long as it does not rain am ok with that.
Our room is nice 4 beds only but down the hall next to the TV room loud noises coming from the young English contingent. hope to get some zzzs tonight. Woke up to Alex talking, in his sleep, he said Buenas Noches and some gibberish or Spanish words, then started snoring, past out after that.



WIKI INFO:


Ruta nacional 40 is a road in western Argentina, stretching from Cabo Virgenes in Santa Cruz Province in the south to La Quiaca in Jujuy Province in the north, parallel to the Andes.

Ruta 40 is the longest road in Argentina, more than 5000 km (3125 miles) long. At its traditional southern end near the Santa Cruz city of Río Gallegos it starts at sea level, crosses 20 national parks, 18 major rivers, crosses 27 Andes passes, and goes up to 5000 meters above sea level in Abra del Acay in Salta.

The legendary road crosses the provinces of Santa Cruz, Chubut, Río Negro, Neuquen, Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucumán, Salta and Jujuy.

The road has sometimes lengthy unpaved stretches, particularly in the south, which the government plans to pave. As of 2006, 48% of the road is paved. Incorporation of sections of other highways into Ruta 40, along with paving, is part of an Argentine government initiative to promote national tourism, drawing upon the legendary and some say mythical attraction attached to Ruta 40. The attraction is actually international in scope, and many websites throughout the world advertise the private and commercial adventures associated with travel on this roadway.

There are a number of internationally important sites along this route, such as Cueva de las Manos, which contains cave art dating back some 13,000 years, Los Glaciares National Park, the second largest National Park in Argentina, and the Calchaquí Valleys.

Since the beginning of its construction in 1935, the actual route of Ruta 40 has changed several times. On 24 November 2004 the Argentine national directorate of highways (Dirección Nacional de Vialidad) promulgated Resolution 1.748/04 which changed the milestone markings and placed the "zero" kilometer stone at the new southernmost extreme of the road, at Cabo Virgenes, near the Straits of Magellan. Since as of January 2009 there was no actual roadway constructed between the new marker location at Cabo Virgenes and Punta Loyola (near Río Gallegos) the provisional driving starting point as of early 2009 was at the KM 100 location. Before 2004, Ruta 40 was divided into "Ruta 40 Sur" (south) and "Ruta 40 Norte"(north) with the earlier "traditional" zero-km starting point at the intersection of San Martín and Garibaldi streets in the city of Mendoza, in Mendoza province. That zero-km marker was subsequently moved to the eastern access point of that city, at the intersection of Ruta 7 and Avenida Gob. Ricardo Videla (also known as Avenida Costanera). The intent of new legislation and remarking of roadways will move the traditional northern terminus of Ruta 40 to the frontier with Bolivia near the location of Ciénaga de Paicone.

On 20 May 2006 the Argentine national highway directorate and the Jujuy provincial highway department signed an agreement in which sections of Jujuy provincial highways 85, 70, 74, 7, 64, 65, and 5 were transferred to national control for the construction of the so-called "Mining Corridor" which will become the new path of Ruta 40, more toward the west in that province. The agreement was ratified by provincial law 5520. Accordingly the section of the road between San Antonio de los Cobres and Abra Pampa is renamed Ruat Nacional 1V40.



CUEVAS DE LAS MANOS:

Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands) is a cave located in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, 163 km (101 mi) south from the town of Perito Moreno, within the borders of the Francisco P. Moreno National Park, which includes many sites of archaeological and paleontogical importance.

The Cave lies in the valley of the Pinturas River, in an isolated spot in the Patagonian landscape, some 100 km (62 mi) from the main road, National Route 40. It is famous (and gets its name) for the paintings of hands, made by the indigenous inhabitants (possibly forefathers of the Tehuelches) some 9,000 years ago. The composition of the inks is mineral, so the age of the paintings was calculated from the remains of bone-made pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall blocked by the hand.

The main cave measures 24 m (79 ft) in depth, with an entrance 15 m (49 ft) wide, and it is initially 10 m (33 ft) high. The ground inside the cave has an upward slope; inside the cave the height is reduced to no more than 2 m (7 ft).
Canyon at the Pinturas River, view from the caves
Scene of hunting

The images of hands are often negative (stencilled). Besides these there are also depictions of human beings, guanacos, rheas, felines and other animals, as well as geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, representations of the sun, and hunting scenes. Similar paintings, though in smaller numbers, can be found in nearby caves. There are also red dots on the ceilings, probably made by submerging their hunting boleadoras in ink, and then throwing them up. The colours of the paintings vary from red (made from hematite) to white, black or yellow. The negative hand impressions are calculated to be dated around 550 BC, the positive impressions from 180 BC, and the hunting drawings to be older than 10,000 years.

Most of the hands are left hands, which suggests that painters held the spraying pipe with their dexterous hand. The size of the hands resembles that of a 13-year-old boy, but considering they were probably smaller in size, it is speculated that they could be a few years older, and marked their advancement into manhood by stamping their hands on the walls of this sacred cave.

Cueva de las Manos has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1999.

---

Photos

EL BOLSON
HOT WATER STATION FOR MATE'