Cueva de las Manos

In a canyon of the Río Pinturas in the empty steppe of southern Patagonia, the walls of a shallow cave and overhang are covered with hundreds of stencilled hands, sprayed onto the rock in ochre, red, black and white by the region's hunter-gatherers over a span of thousands of years, the oldest dated to around nine thousand years ago. The technique was to place a hand against the wall and blow pigment around it through a bone tube, leaving a negative silhouette, and the overlapping hands, almost all left hands, are joined by paintings of guanaco hunts and abstract signs. It is one of the most important and evocative rock-art sites in the Americas, and its remoteness, deep in the Patagonian outback, is part of the experience. Reaching it is a journey, and it is seen on a guided walk along the canyon wall.

History

The paintings date from about 7300 BC to AD 700, and the last people to live in the cave may have been ancestors of the Tehuelche. Father Alberto María de Agostini was the first to write about the site, in 1941, and the most substantial research began in 1964 with a team led by Carlos Gradin. The cave has been a National Historic Monument of Argentina since 1993 and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 (Wikipedia, Cueva de las Manos).

Highlights

• The stencilled hands - hundreds of ochre and black hand silhouettes across the rock.
• The hunting scenes - painted guanaco hunts among the handprints.
• The canyon setting - the Río Pinturas gorge in the vast empty steppe.
• The guided walk - the boardwalk and path along the painted overhangs.

When to go

November to March is the Patagonian summer, when the roads are reliably open and the weather mildest; winter is bitterly cold and access can be cut. Even in summer the wind is relentless. Visits run at set times with guides, so check the schedule before making the long drive.

Before you go

It is genuinely remote, reached by a long drive on gravel roads with few services, so fuel, water and time need planning; the nearest town, confusingly also called Perito Moreno, is not the famous glacier. Visits are guided and on a fixed schedule. The wind and sun on the exposed steppe are fierce. The reward is one of the great rock-art sites, but it takes real effort to reach.

Nearby

The RN40 and the town of Perito Moreno are the access points; the region's estancias offer lodging.