Okay, let me clarify and explain beforehand that I went to school for anthropology/archaeology, although I decided after graduating college to not work in this industry, it is a passion of mine. My Mom seems to tell everyone in the States that her daughter lives in Argentina and she went to school for archaeology and it somehow explains the strangeness of how I have chosen to live. My curiosity of other cultures is no doubt what fascinates me about this area and some of my favorite activities here reflect that. It is a virtual playground for an archaeologist when you walk in the cerros (hills) and see so much evidence of pre-existing communities that has been untouched other than by raiders and passerby's. What I could study here! Charlie tells me that is his goal for me for us to get to a point where we can spend the days exploring the everlasting chain of mountains searching for clues to previous civilizations and continue the work of the museums here. I think that’s a pretty amazing goal. My goal for him is to get him a dirt bike to explore the endless desert - I think we can work together on this!
My favorite day trip to take visitors is to head out in the morning straight to Amaicha de Valle and visit Museo Pachamama, after visiting the museum, on the way back to Cafayate we stop at the Ruinas de Quilmes, and finish up with lunch at Alta La Luna hotel in Tolombon.
Museo Pachamama is the most amazing museum I have seen - anywhere! More so in how it was constructed as opposed to the content on the inside. This museum is an architectural dream! Every wall is made of stones and rocks so placed that formations of frogs, suris, serpents, and other various designs are detailed. It is something to be seen that I can’t otherwise explain. They have a geological room, an archaeology room, and the various art forms that the museum creator, Hector Cruz, creates such as: tapestries, paintings, and ceramics. If it isn’t genius enough to build this museum, Hector is also an artist of many forms. After thoroughly enjoying the tour of Museo Pachamama (note, if you take this on your own, they only do Spanish speaking tours. If you want it in English, you must take an English speaking guide. It is worth the tour because it’s amazing how much you learn about the designs and their significance, if you don’t, it’s great to see but has that much more meaning when you understand what it’s all about), we head back towards Cafayate and stop about 10K from Museo Pachamama at Ruinas de Quilmes.
Ruinas de Quilmes is also an amazing area to explore. With or without guided tours, you can crawl up to the mountain top and see the vastness of the valley and imagine what life must have been like so many years ago for this seemingly large community. This partially re-built ruins also has spanish speaking tours and an opportunity to hike. Once we spend time roaming around the ruins looking at all the rooms, thinking about previous runnings of life up and down the mountain and lookouts where they can see enemies coming from miles and miles away, we head to Tolombon.
Tolombon is only about 15k south of Cafayate. There is a new hotel that opened less than a year ago called Alta La Luna. Tolombon is a very small community with only this new hotel and an old Bodega (that doesn’t have tours right now), and of course a small community of people. I love going to Alta La Luna (http://www.altalaluna.com/) for lunch because you can sit out back on the patio looking at the mountains in this beautiful hotel and feel like nothing else is around you. A perfect end to a perfect morning!!
If you are interested in more information on this circuit - send me an email (cafayate@staycafayate.com).
No comments:
Post a Comment