Ancient ruins and giant cactii - Quilmes and around

After leaving Ibera, I headed west and into Northern Argentina, stopping briefly in a non-eventful small town called San Peña and arriving after another long bus journey in Taffi de la Valle. The whole stretch of travelling from Missiones to Taffi was interestingly off the beaten track for overseas tourists (Taffi attracts a reasonable number of Argentine tourists), and was a good glimpse into more traditional Argentine life, even though the transportation system was difficult and it took much longer than I´d planned to get through the area. For example, in Missiones we were promised a kitchen at our accommodation, which turned out not to exist. Laden with groceries, we asked to use the kitchen at the camping part next-door. The answer was yes, and we chatted with the occupants, sharing our wine and making fried bananas for everyone while slowly realising that the camping had nothing to do with our own accommodation, and the kitchen was part of a local house.

A genuine gaucho (cowboy) in Taffi. In Ibera on the anaconda hunt, we happened to see cowboys at work lasooing a calf - I´d thought that was only done in rodeos these days...


This is Quilmes, the ruins of a pre-Incan settlement (located near Tafi). The site is interesting, the artwork of the few surviving local descendents is beautiful, and it´s amazing to think that such a big settlement was able to exist in such an arid area.

I loved the big cacti in northern Argentina, just like in deserts from the movies...

A different view of Quilmes...

Extremely dodgy hotel in Tucuman, Northern Argentina, which for some reason I thought was photogenic...