En Route To The Cave Of Hands

From the description at the travel office in Bariloche, we figured we'd be picked up at the Estancia and would see the Cave of Hands and then would be back in Perito Moreno by mid- afternoon, to await the night bus to El Chalten. Not so. It turned out the Cave of Hands was an all-day experience, involving scenic driving, a 5k trek up a canyon, and then the Cave. A great day nonetheless. Jan. 28.

First a stop to appreciate the desert colors

Claudio, our guide, was a pretty good photographer

This is an ex-guanaco

A herd of guanaco--they are the forebears of llamas; the
principal mammal hereabouts

Another road-side shrine

Beginning of the canyon we will be exploring

Pronounced ascent

King of the mountain

Pronounced descent

Big mountains to the east

More guanaco

Argentine ostrich

Chick

More guanaco

Closer up

San Lorenzo, highest of the southern Andes at 3.7km

Inside our van; two other couples, driver and guide; really nice
people; invited us to share the mate'

The Cave seemed hardly 25 miles from the Estancia, but much
of it was gravel, and then this track

The canyon into which we will descend and the ascend to see
the Cueva de las Manos

Thanks, again, Claudio

Vicki wisely decided not to do the trek up the canyon...too
steep and too much gravel; so she rode on to the Cuevo site
and waited for the trekkers

Estancia Cueva De Las Manos

We arrived at the Estancia Cueva de las Manos in good order, unpacked and enjoyed a decent roast chicken dinner. One of the things one does in Argentina is to stay on an estancia--a ranch--and so I was very pleased with the opportunity. Plus, the accommodations were pretty nice. Except the electricity ran only in the evening hours, off a generator. Don't ask about the ice machine. As it turned out, it was a sort of qualified estancia, sold last year to a foundation which, after ridding it of non-native animals, will donate it all to the Cuevo de las Manos national park. Nonetheless, I listened intently to the Malambo from Ginastera's Estancia suite on my phone. Jan. 27.

Lounge decor

Looking around the estancia

The environs

A Day On Ruta 40

So our plans required getting to El Chalten, way south, the trekking capital of Argentina, then to El Calafate, and then to Puerto Natales in Chile for our Torres de Paine trek. We are to do warm-up day hikes in El Chalten and El Calafate. But, between Bariloche and El Chalten is the Cueva de los Manos, the Cave of Hands, something very long on my must-see list. It is an hour or so off the route, from Perito Moreno, half way to El Chalten. All that is to say...instead of simply flying to El Calafate and then El Chalten, we had to take the bus to Perito Moreno and then get a transfer to the Estancia at the Cave of Hands. 12 or so hours altogether. Fortunately, El Chalten Travel has all this covered, bus, transfer, lodging and eats. An experience not be missed, anyway, since it was all along Argentina's fabled Ruta 40. Fabled largely for passing through hundreds upon hundreds of miles of nothing, in high winds, interesting perhaps to people who have not seen Nevada. But we'll now proudly paste Ruta 40 stickers on our campers. Jan. 27.

South of Bariloche, you're still in lake country

A protest camp in El Bolsen; I guess we'll be seeing these soon enough in
Trumpistan

But then things begin to dry out and the wind picks up

A shrine, marking a fatal accident...consisting of water jugs

Not a casino in sight

Wind

Interesting settlements here and there, sometimes single units, sometimes
duplexes, as here; perhaps mining or petroleum exploration

Passing through a town

Pretty stark, most of it

More wind, gale force, unceasing

Ruta 40, nowadays paved pretty much all the way; not quite
the adventure it was not very long ago

Argentinan long travel buses are actually pretty nice, deeply reclining seats,
meals served (enchilada with yellow/green/brown interior, juice, cookie),
hot water for coffee, mate', air conditioned, B-grade American movies
("Maldicion" comprises most of the script of these ultra violent movies); we
got to El Chalten just a little late but made our transfer just fine