Cueva de las Manos

An unusual destination for history and art lovers, with great cultural value and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO: Cueva de las Manos leaves many speechless.

This site is an archaeological site with cave paintings thousands of years old that can be seen on the rocky walls that make up the southern part of the Río Pinturas canyon. Cueva de las Manos is located in the extreme northwest of the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina and can only be reached by National Highway 40.

Although it was visited by several explorers since the 19th century, scientific research only started in 1960. All knowledge about this place was given thanks to the first contributions of archaeologist Carlos Gradin and his team: they demonstrated that the inhabitants of this area lived. hunting and collecting wild plants.

Rock art is one of the most important relics because it gives us the possibility to know not only the societies of the past, but also how they saw life through art. And particularly in La Cueva de las Manos, these rock paintings are 9300 years old, being one of the oldest of the South American peoples. According to studies, these paintings were prepared with minerals obtained in the area and then ground and mixed with water, blood or urine. The hands are not painted like stamps, but outlines and this is due to the technique they used: they blew the pigments with a reed or spit directly into the mouth. In addition, environmental conditions favored its conservation: from the absence of water infiltration, as it is a dry place with little humidity, to the stable rock layers where they were painted.

There are several representations on the walls:

To this day, it is a mystery and all its meanings are hypothetical. Many experts say that this art could be a ritual where they painted the caves to make their presence at the ceremony certain. Others think they did this to give them a sense of identity and belonging to the place where they lived.

Furthermore, the most curious thing is that most of the painted and outlined hands are left (only 31 right hands were found).

There is a legend in Santa Cruz that says that one summer, a young teenager Tehuelche bathed in the river and after drying her hair, dressed and put the feather that corresponded to her for the post of Princess Tehuelche. Downstream, a smoke signal showed him where his family was camping. The place I was going to was shaped like a long natural stone roof with a few small caves at the base. 

She started up the slope of the ravine. The young woman was quite agitated by the effort to climb and, at the same time, anxious to meet for the first time with a young man from a neighboring tribe. This young hunter arrived a few minutes later falling in love when he saw her.

Everything seemed like love and joy, but no one would think that at that moment a huge stone would fall, hitting the princess and leaving her disappeared by the blow. With this situation, the young man ran to help her while watching how the others also seemed to fall. He held these stones so tightly that blood gushed from his hands and was imprinted on the stones. Instantly, the entire tribe appeared to help. Before that, they prepared dyes for their clothes.

Finally, the young woman woke up a little confused, but happy to see the young hunter and the calm returned. All the members of the tribe removed their hands from the stones, but their footprints were marked with all the shades of colors they had prepared. And that was how the cave of hands was created.

You can rent a car and drive from the town of Perito Moreno (located on National Route 40) south towards Gobernador Gregores. From there continue to the Bajo Caracoles stop and take Provincial Route 97 that leads to the Cueva de las Manos. It is 118 kilometers from Perito Moreno to the cave, that is, approximately 2 hours of travel.

You can rent a car and drive 600 kilometers away from El Calafate to the Cueva de las Manos, it is about 12 hours by the RN40. The number of hours to arrive is due to the fact that a large part of the route is gravel and in order not to have problems with the vehicle, everyone is asked to go at a maximum speed of 50 kilometers. The closest stop is in Bajo Caracoles.

It is clearly not allowed to camp and spend the night in the Cueva de las Manos. But there are several nearby accommodations that we have to recommend: