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The Cueva de las Manos Pintadas (Cave of the Painted Hands), one of South America's finest examples of rock art, can be approached either via 45km of ripio road from Bajo Caracoles, or, better, by walking or riding up the canyon it overlooks, the impressive Canon de Rio Pinturas . Hikes and horserides can be arranged from Casa de Piedra , but whether you intend going on foot or on horseback, it is sensible to contract Senor Sabella to drive you to the trailhead at the canyon rim ($25 return). This saves a thirteen-kilometre hike or ride across the rolling pampa in each direction, and makes it a comfortable day-trip. You can drive to the trailhead by taking the first left-hand track as you leave the valley of the Rio Ecker to the south, but ask permission first and remember to close all gates. From the canyon rim, it's a spectacular two-hour walk to the cave paintings through scenery that would do any Arizonan Western proud: the path drops sharply to the fertile, flat valley bed, and stays to the right of the snaking river at all times, nestling up against imposing rock walls and pinnacles that display the region's traumatic geological history in bands of black basalt, slabs of rust-coloured sandstone and a stressed layer of sedimentary rocks that range in hue from chalky white to mottled ochre. Bring binoculars for viewing the wide variety of finches and birds of prey that inhabit the canyon, plus food, water, a hat and suncream. Where the course of the Rio Pinturas is diverted by a vast rampart of red sandstone, you start to climb the valley side again to reach the road and the entrance building to the protected area around the paintings (daily: May-Sept 8.30am-10pm; Oct-April 7am-10.30pm; $3), where there's a modest museum display. You can usually pitch a tent here free, but ask the guardaparque 's permission first. The cueva itself is less a cave than a series of overhangs: natural cutaways at the foot of a towering ninety-metre cliff face overlooking the canyon below. From this vantage point, groups of paleolithic hunter-gatherers would survey the valley floor for game, though nowadays the view is partly spoiled by the ineffective and heavy-handed iron fence that attempts to keep tourists from etching their own twenty-first century graffiti on the rock. Even so, the collage of black, white, red and ochre handprints , mixed with gracefully flowing vignettes of guanaco hunts, still makes for an astonishing spectacle. Of the trademark 829 handprints, most are male, and only 31 are right-handed. They are all "negatives", being made by placing the hand on the rock face, and imprinting its outline by blowing pigments through a tube. Interspersed with these are human figures, as well as the outlines of puma paws and rhea prints, and creatures such as a scorpion. The earliest paintings were made by the Toldense culture, and date as far back as 7300 BC, but archeologists have identified four later cultural phases, ending with depictions by early Tehuelche groups - notably geometric shapes and zigzags - from approximately 1000 AD. The significance of the paintings is much debated: whether they represented part of the rite of passage for adolescents into the adult world, and were thus part of ceremonies to strengthen familial or tribal bonds, or whether they were connected to religious ceremonies that preceded the hunt will probably never be known. Other tantalizing mysteries involve theories surrounding the large number of heavily pregnant guanacos depicted, and whether these herds were actually semi-domesticated or at least managed. One thing is for certain: considering their exposed position, it is remarkable how vivid some of the colours still are: the colours were made from the berries of calafate bushes, local mineral-bearing earth and charcoal, while guanaco fat and urine was applied to create the waterproof coating that has preserved them so well.
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