Malargue - Cavernas de las Brujas

My second outing from Malargüe was thankfully less eventful than the first. Cavernas de las Brujas is a network of caves in the mountain face out in the middle of nowhere. Legend has it the caves used to be used for shamanic rituals by local aboriginals, hence the name (bruja=witch.)

You donned your helmet and headlamp, and then went into the caves for a two-hour visit that involved hanging out in the hugeentry chamber of the cave to get our eyes used to the darkness, and then much climbing and shimmying through narrow crevices, the whole puncuated by historical and geological explanations by our amazing guide Estela.

A virgin caver, I thought it was cool, though some Europeans complained it was a let-down compared to the caves they've got back home.

We stopped for what had been advertised as a "hike" at a park on the way back to Malargue afterward. The "hike" was a 30 minute nature walk with 15 other people along a trail to a grantedly pretty little waterfall. A guide stopped the group every 2 minutes to explain the fossils found along the trail to the group of bored-looking kids and ill-dressed middle aged women in flip flops and mini-skirts. Blah!

Luckily, the "hike" was followed by lunch at a restaurant featuring the region's famous chivito! Aka. GOAT ( though I didn't know it at the time...could have sworn it was beef of some sort...) Mmmm, a big hunk of goat meat on a huge bone, roasted over an open fire and eaten with your bare hands. I then understood why Malargue's chivito is famous throughout all of Argentina.