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wilhelmm-norway
Fascinating canyon and Caves With tons of different paintings, mostly of hands, but also of different animals and symbols. Everything from 1300 to 9300 years old. Rare to see such old manifests of a long gone Indian culture in these parts of the world. No wonder the Caves are on the UNESCO list of world Heritage. The road is not too bad, and you easily drive from Perito Moreno to visit the Caves, and on to Gobernadores in a day. Even better: Stay overnight at the Hotel Bajo Caracoles - fascinating hotel in the middle of nowhere. Do not miss this sight if you pass on the Routa 40!
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EtanM
This place is amazing. The long bus trip is worth it!We had one excellent tour guide and a very good translator. A young man who was alert to the nature around us and thanks to him we got to see and learn about the wild life as well as the art. There is also a small nice museum on location.
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sergey-sem48
I recomend to use a rental car or take a bus excursion from Perito Moreno. We joined to occasional group at Ruta 40 and needed to cross canion to rech Perito Moreno after it. At last stop before Perito Moreno, by the way from El Chalten to Bariloche, we had the opportunity to join an excursion to a known Las Manos Cave. A small bus brought us to a picturesque canyon at the Pinturas River. Here we had given helmets and on wooden planked footway we descended into the canyon. Our guide Valeria had pointed to a bus standing at the other side of the huge canyon and told us we were going to this car that was waiting for us. It was a good joke, and all laughed amicably.The planked footway led us to a large cave, but its entry was closed. No matter for all the interesting rocks covered by prints of human hands were on the outside. It looked as if someone put one hand on a stone and sprayed paint from a tube. There are hundreds, if not thousands of such prints, and some pictures of animals - mostly guanacos, but also trees, circles, prints of ostrich's paws and even a white moon. According Valeria's explanations, the oldest pictures there were animals and hunt scenes, about ten thousand years old and hand prints about two thousand years old. It is very strange, but no human remains were found here. The picture rocks are fenced off from the track by a metal grid to prevent new paintings.We had been looking at these miracles for about an hour. After that we had reached the end of footway, and one man collected our helmets and brought them back to entry, but Valeria didn't follow. At that moment I became afraid that Valeria's talk about the car was not a joke.Valeria told us to follow her and went over the handrail. We followed her and went straight down a slope. The canyon had about two hundred meters depth, and small cows peered up at us surprised from its bottom. A not so small river was waiting us there.Gradually all had gone down and were stopped by river. Then Valeria showed us what we should do. She had taken off her shoes, rolled up trousers and entered into water. We followed and the river was shallow and warm, the water pure and transparent. When we came to the other bank, we walked about a hundred meters barefoot and climbed up a hill of volcanic ash. The ash was warm and soft and it was pleasant for our bare feet.After putting our shoes on, we had only to rise two hundred meters up towards our goal. The rock before us was almost vertical, but we knew with Valeria we could overcome anything. She led us via imperceptible paths and we went out of canyon in the sunset, an unbelievable and magnificent sunset. I had never seen anything like it. The clouds were as a flame - red and yellow, and the entire heavens were enveloped in flames.
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gerhildschiller
difficult to get to, not by busbut it is definitely worth the visitbring timebecause the surrounding landscape is very interesting to walk throughthe cave itself is not a caveit is a overhanging rockthe actual cave is only acessible for scientistsnevertheless it is overwhelming to see 9000 year old spray art and drawings
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Vox-trotter
The site itself is beautiful and mysterious. Really. I mean, thankfully, it is protected by Unesco since 1999 as a World Heritage Site. The “Cave of Hands” is 18-20km from the Estancia Cueva de las manos (formerly Estancia Los Toldos, see my review). The road is a little sinuous and rough, but enjoyable nonetheless, since there are herds of guanacos (llama-like animals) and choiqués (the Argentine version of the ostrich called the Rhea) pretty much all the way to the parking lot of the cave. To gain access to the cave, you must go down and up a canyon (3km) to make it there as the cave lies in a valley. There is no road link. The other way to make it there, if you can’t hike, walk, climb or tread, is to make it to the caves from Bajo Caracoles. About 127 km on the other side. Along the way, down and up the valley, I’ve witnessed carcasses of dead cows. This is puma country (but don’t worry, they are afraid of humans, so they won’t attack you) and they leave their traces behind.Once you’ve reached the caves, a guide will give you the tour along the 27m long façade of where the hands are illustrated accompanied by descriptions and an eerie wind-blown silence. Along the stone wall of the cave (which was estimated between 9000 to 13000 years) are thousands of hand prints. Orange, black, yellow, white, red and purple pigments coming from the earth itself spit onto the rock, while hands were placed on its cold hard surface, have left the impressions in negative of the fingers and palms of some of the pre-Tehuelche people and other tribes. Most of these are left hands, which goes to show how pretty much everyone was right-handed. You do have the small percentile of left-handed (I think I saw 1…) and there is 1 hand that is made to look like it had 6 fingers (it may have been tampered with). Aside from the hands are other drawings and scenes which are apparently more recent drawings. There are scenes where you can depict guanaco capture tactics by either running the herds to a death jump down a ravine or with the men using primitive weapons. There are also turtles, stars, lizards, spiders, suns, full moons, guanacos, and choiqués .These hands, more primitive yet more understandable than hieroglyphics, explain the times and culture of these specific tribes. They are a lesson in history, in hunting and survival techniques with simple, yet colorful storytelling features. Oh, and a gate along the caves forbids you to high-five any of these hands. It’s bad enough that rain, wind, and UV rays are fading some of the hands exposed to these elements.
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pinkfloyd412
The Canyon itself pays the visit and besides the cave is a World Heritage Site
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FionaM108
After driving around a large area of Patagonia, I can see why this site was chosen by these early peoples as a place of rest and refuge. Located on a mountain next to a beautiful valley, it's easy to understand the attraction of this place. The paintings on the walls remain a vivid reminder of those who came before us. This was definitely a worthwhile site to visit. We were lucky enough to have a private tour as we were the only people there at the time. Our guide was very knowledgeable, not only about the history of the site, but of the area.One thing to take into consideration is that this area is in FULL sun, and there isn't a lot of shade. Visitors are required to wear a hard hat, so I wasn't able to wear my large brimmed hat. My husband had a baseball cap that he was able to wear underneath.
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EnriqueSt
In Cueva de las Manos I felt the pressence of very ancient people, by the painting of their own hands.This is a misterious place. It's worth the hundreds of km of dirty roads to get there.
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Daniel192
Es un sitio arqueológico de pinturas rupestres maravilloso, emociona sentirse en ese lugar más de 9000 años hacia atrás.La guía una excelente profesional, nos dio una visión muy completa y respondió con paciencia todas las preguntas.Lo que no gustó: el mal estado de los baños, y la actitud indolente e irrespetuosa de los empleados del municipio de Perito Moreno ante el reclamo.
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129alec
Si bien nos costó llegar ya que el camino desde Perito Moreno es casi todo ripio con bajadas muy pronunciadas,el cañadon sobre el río Pinturas es bellísimo y las pinturas rupestres muy bien conservadas parecen hechas recientemente. Muy buena la explicación de la guía. Mi recomendación es que el regreso se haga por la ruta de ripio hasta Bajo Caracoles para evitar el regreso por la otra ruta que termina en Perito Moreno que a la vuelta tiene subidas muy importantes y que a los autos les cuesta mucho hacer,esta ruta que recomiendo son apenas unos km más y termina también en la ruta 40 por la cual se puede regresar a Perito Moreno o a Los Antiguos.
