A little home away from home...

With the missed connections on the crossing to Chile via Villa OHiggins -- but still wanting to get into that area (the end of the road on the Chilean side) I had to go around the long way... east and then north through Argentina on the Ruta 40, the famous interior highway.  This would , however, conveniently take me past a place I had wanted to go anyway... A UNESCO-recognized archaeological site with amazing cave paintings in a dry canyon environment. And I could stay close to the site at an estancia (ranch) that offered tours of the cave and other sites in the area. Done!  After a rough overnight bus ride up the highway (which is mostly unpaved and really bumpy) I met my guide in Perito Moreno and he took me back down to the estancia.  We drove for several miles through the estancia which is in the dry Pampas part of Patagonia, the whole eastern part of southern Argentina

and then we arrived at the lip of a hidden canyon that sort of reminded me of Canyon de Chelly...

Hiked down 

And back up 

and had a park guide take us along the boardwalk (walkway and fence to protect the site) to the paintings, the oldest of which date from 9000 years ago, but others are more recent, only a few thousand yrs old...

Incredible!  And even cooler, there was a local cactus (the only one I saw in the pampas area... have to do some research on this one...) that was very similar to my own 'beloved' dog chollas of west Texas... "A face only a mother could love..." :)

Back to the estancia for some great food and folks

And then the next day some fantastic hiking to more cave paintings in Cañadon Charcamata

In some ways this one was even neater because it was just there... No fences etc, we had to walk up a canyon to see it, felt a little more hidden, and it was an amazing shelter with a spring.... it was just awesome. Then another walk to a different canyon... Nidos de los Cóndores...

Where there were these caves and slots in the canyon walls that had what almost looked like stalagmite deposits but what are really who knows how many years of guano deposits of perched/resting condors... an amazing thought actually because the canyon was quite tight and I'm not sure how with their 2+ meter wing spans they get down in the canyon and then back out but it was really neat. In one cave an owl actually flew out of the the darkness from the rear of the cave to, well, I'm not sure. It could have been a welcome but with their intense visage, it didn't feel like the friendliest of welcomes... :)

Was sad to leave that evening but had a bus to catch heading west... Back to the snow covered mountains and craggy peaks of the spine of the continent.  Stay tuned!