Culture in Cachi

Cachi was probably our most "culturally rich" stop while touring the Valles Calchaquíes.  The locals fully embrace their northern traditions, melding a rich pre-colombian history and modern argentine obsessions.   One northern tradition that they are particularly faithful to is that of the Siesta.  We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, without any idea of what to do or where to stay, and found that the tourism office would be of zero help because they close during the siesta.  Which means that they're open from 9-noon, have a break until 6pm, and then decide that they don't really want to come back to work at 6 anyway :)

We had a similar experience at a bakery;  the sign on the door said that it would reopen at 6pm but when we knocked on the door at 6:30 nobody answered.  Upon investigating further (and by investigating I really mean continuing our walk along the sidewalk) we discovered an open window through which we could see the baker -- still napping.

I'm not knocking the Siesta.  Only clueless, time-restricted tourists willing walk around 1) in the heat of the day 2) in the desert 3)in a part of the world where there is a gaping hole in the ozone.

This picture is of the outside of the archeological museum in Cachi, on the central plaza.  The building was beautiful with an enormous amount of pre-columbian artifacts, and some "interesting" paper-mache exhibits.

There were so many grinding stones and metates that the floors were literally littered (hmm, how alliterative) with them.

There were also so many petroglyphs that people have found in their fields that the museum has turned them into a wall.

 Here's a close-up of a llama petroglyph.

Other places we checked out were:

The church (we didn't go in b/c it was packed with families watching their kids make their first communion).

The local library was a neat one-room place filled with REALLY old books.

Check out the Literature section.

And we checked out the soccer (excuse me, FUTBOL) field.

We just stumbled upon this game, and although it definetely wasn't Futbol de Primera A, B or C; it remains the only game I've attended while here in Argentina. [As a side note, this is not to belittle Pedro's efforts in brainwashing me with hours upon hours of televised futbol a la "Clockwork Orange."  He's had such success with me that I even recognized El Principito Sosa walking down the street in La Plata.]

But back to THIS game, Cachi against....Molinos?  I forget who the other team was, but I cannot forget their fans.  I have never heard such colorful language coming from 13 year-old girls before.  Across the field from where we were standing, you can see the requisite Hinchada (fan base) pounding on drums and blowing on brass horns.

Even the cops were into the game.