Amaicha and Ruinas de Quilmes

at the end of day one, after a high class foto shooting cactus and we, we and cactus, we arrive in amaicha del valle. amaicha was one of my personal favorites on this trip, after all the cities ive seen finally i arrived in argentina :)

amaicha might have like what.. maybe some thousand inhabitants? plus five or six tourists every night, probably for the one and only reason, its situated on the ruta 40, mentiones earlier. its pretty, charming for not having paved streets and no defined opening times for stores. like ten blocks between the highway and the wilderness on the other end of the village are whats available for walks, a huge quite green plaza for being a desert and cactus everywhere.

dont know, how would you describe the magic of a place? if you could it wouldnt be that magic anymore.. i loved it for the old dude with his gaucho hat in the morning buying cheese on the plaza. for the guy in the farmacy that didnt know when the internet place opens. cause you never know.. for the huge fiesta on the plaza friday night, just because it was a friday night.

our first excursion this day was headed to the waterfall of amaicha. 5min away from the village, up the hills, hidden by another million of cactus, theres a little river. people of the village made it a kinda mini national park, sacrificing the pachamama, mother earth. theres people down at the waterfall, helping the visitors to climb it, and watching out that they leave with all their garbage. the waterfall itself was like.. tiny, cute, nothing compared to iguazu but incredibly beautiful. in between the canions, some rays of sunlight entering.

if you wanted to get to the end of the canion you had to well.. climb up. get wet baby.. we had loads of fun with the waterfall-assistans climbin the ladder, trying not to be soaking. without success :)

after getting lost in the canion when walking back to the car (cause there were two ways, which is one more than only one) we started right away to excursion two. this time some kilometers up the highway to the sacred town of quilmes. this is a town of ruines, alongside a mountain in the sierra. and of course a bunch of cactus, just to mention. quilmes has been a "major city" to the indians of quilmes, until the destruction by the spanish conquerors. today the territory belongs to the indians again, and is a hidden attraction for local tourism. didnt see other europeans :)

on the way to cafayate we stopped for coffee in i-dont-remember-the-name; the old lady serving was happy to know where france is :)