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.
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First a stop to appreciate the desert colors |
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Claudio, our guide, was a pretty good photographer |
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This is an ex-guanaco |
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A herd of guanaco--they are the forebears of llamas; the
principal mammal hereabouts |
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Another road-side shrine |
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Beginning of the canyon we will be exploring |
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Pronounced ascent |
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King of the mountain |
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Pronounced descent |
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Big mountains to the east |
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More guanaco |
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Argentine ostrich |
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Chick |
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More guanaco |
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Closer up |
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San Lorenzo, highest of the southern Andes at 3.7km |
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Inside our van; two other couples, driver and guide; really nice
people; invited us to share the mate' |
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The Cave seemed hardly 25 miles from the Estancia, but much
of it was gravel, and then this track |
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The canyon into which we will descend and the ascend to see
the Cueva de las Manos |
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Thanks, again, Claudio |
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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 |