Off the beaten track.

Actually managed to visit a town that´s not in the Lonely Liar! Very sweet little town with an empty expensive campsite at one end and a cheap busy one at the other. In between, we found the usual pretty, tree-lined square and more limping dogs. Almost every dog in Argentina has a limp due either to chasing cars or well-aimed kicks. Most of them are a sorry looking bunch, relying on rubbish bins for food or even having to hunt in the lean winter months.

Close up of ruins

Decided to catch the local bus out the 15km to the local ruins of Quilmes - life´s never that simple though is it? An hour and a half later and many little villages far from the main road and we reach the junction leading up to the ruins - another 5km on a very dusty track but our luck was in and we got a lift straight away. Up till now Quilmes has been the main brand of local beer to us. Turns out to be a huge area of ruins which housed about 5000 people and fought off all sorts of invasions, droughts etc from AD 1000 up until the Spanish arrived. Same old story eh? No descendents of the Quilmes Indians left but the man with the Spanish surname will happily charge you to look at the ¨historically important ruins¨.

Leaving Amaicha

It´s hard to get a real idea of how beautiful the ruins are from the photos. Looks like the locals felt that aesthetics were equally as important as practicality which leads to some beautifully shaped buildings. Spent most of the day pottering around then accosted a local for a lift back to the junction.

Llama looks on.

More ruins

Wild lands