As we had spent the last 2 days trying to get south but not really covering much ground, today was a day that would basically be spent in the car until we reached our next point. Cuevas de las Manos (The cave of hands).

 

The car journey wasn't so bad, I mean, we hired a Renault Duster so it would be big enough for all four of us to sit in comfortably. Which it was, very comfy in fact. It's just a shame about the scenery that accompanied us along this stretch of the road. It was just so....flat, and the road was so straight. Probably the most boring road I'v ever driven across. Sometimes though, we would get interesting things like the occasional tree, or even a bend in the road. No, there were things like herds of sheep, lamas and wild horses but even they were few and far between the vastness.

 

As it began to approach early evening, we finally found the road sign for Cuevas de las Manos so took the next turning. OH, ROAD SIGNS, this is also another thing Argentina lacks in, they literally don't have any and just expect you to be able to guess your way to where your going. It's rediculous. Anyway, were driving along casually all excited to see hands that date back to over 18,000 years ago, when of corse the road changes again in to a dirt road full of mud and rocks and ridiculously steep inclines. At least this scenery was pretty interesting, I just hope dusty doesn't get stuck again.

 

Luckily she didn't and we made it to the entrance. It's crazy, we went from this land of absolutely nothing to a little further in and were stood at the top of a huge canyon looking straight down it. The entrance fee for the hands was 120 pesos per person which was pretty expensive, but after driving that road there was no chance we were going back any time soon. The woman in the office was a bit of a bitch but the girl who did our tour was awesome.

 

The first set of prints we came up to were the oldest ones and from there down they got more and more recent. They were really cool to see, and learn about how they lived and managed to survive. Each wall had areas where the people from the community of that period would put their hand prints, it's made from grinding up a stone, mixing it with animal fat or urine, then putting it in their mouth and blowing it over their hand to make a stencil. Kind of gross but it's still here thousands of years later to tell their story. Other prints included dancing figures, a 6 fingered hand (signs of incest) and also the stories of their hunts. Even though the journey their was a little hectic it was 100% worth it. 

 

By the time we had finished the tour it was coming close to dark so we jumped back in the car, got of the dirt road, and began to look for a place to camp. We decided to keep going through the night as we still had some time making up to do. When it got to around 12 we figured we should stop and ended up setting up outside a farmers field. Although, it was very swift if I do say so myself. Car lights on, tent up, soup on the gas fire and jobs a goodun.