December 13, 1999
Day 52 Estancia Telken: Tour to Cuevas de los Manos
We can sleep in a bit, and Rachel fixes a nice breakfast with fried eggs and pastries. At 9:30am Harry, Patty's and Koho's son arrives with a minivan driver and two older Argentinian women. For $55/pp he takes us to Cuevas de los Manos about 160km from here, partly in the direction we will be traveling, but too far off Ruta 40 for us to cycle to.
It's a long bumpy ride, we take note of several river valleys we cross, there will be some pushing involved tomorrow!
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At the site Harry gets the key from the Ranger who lives in a cabin halfway down the valley in which the cares are situated. The key is to a gate that protects these sensitive paintings. A trail takes us down along towering rocks that have created overhangs.
Below is the river along which the Indians lived. They hunted on the windy plains above. Along a stretch of wall hundreds of colorful handprints can be seen, created thousands of years ago. People put their hands on the rock and blew paint through a hollow hose. There are also drawing of hunting scenes, big and small guanacos' everywhere.
After having lunch at the caretakers house of sandwiches we brought, we ride back the 2.5 hours and by 6:30pm we are back at the Estancia. Time enough for a shower before dinner. Tonight we eat with the family, we pay but no so much since it is their normal evening meal.
Koko is from Dutch ancestry but was born in Argentina. Patty is a New Zealander/Scottish descent. We hear about the Estancia and how the 1991 eruption of Mount Hudson in Chile deposited 5 cm ash on top of the snow. In spring the snow did not melt and 6000 of their 10,000 sheep died. They are still not killing sheep but try to recover by letting the herd expand.
Neighboring estancias have gone back or switched to cows or horses, which makes Telken prime hunting grounds for foxes and puma. Sheep have no defenses against these predators. We have a very pleasant evening, good food, wine and beer.
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