The Mistery of Belicena Villca
– Sir ? – the dispatcher interruped me . – Fill the tank with special gasoline , please ; Ah ! check the oil ... --I said . My abrupt departure did not allow Mom to give enough information about Uncle Kurt . Now the questions began to arise because I did not know if he had married , if he had children and grandchildren , what did he do for a living ...
– Bah --I thought-- I must concentrate on the journey and have faith . I will know everything in a few hours . – Thirty liters of gasoline and two of oil , sir . + - – Here , get paid --I handed him a note-- do you have a map of the Routes of the Catamarca province ? – Yes sir . He went to the booth and quickly returned carrying a deployable plane , in colors , with profuse tourist information . – It ' s one thousand more . I paid him and started the engine to remove the car from the pump , but I parked twenty meters ahead and began to examine the map .
Going to Santa María from Salta is not a problem but , on the contrary , it has the advantage of including one of the most beautiful tourist circuits in the Argentinian Northwest . It is the journey from Salta to Cafayate " la Hermosa ", as they popularly call this city famous throughout the world for its exquisite wines , located in the heart of the Calchaquí valleys .
With a recently paved road , the Provincial Route 68 , which facilitates the trip and allows you to enjoy unique landscapes for its multicolored hills , these two hundred kilometers are traveled quickly . The inconveniences only appear when leaving Cafayate , when crossing the stream “ de las Conchas ” and leaving the Province of Salta . Then you enter the Province of Tucumán , but only for about 40 km . since it presents there a small wedge , which is embedded in the Province of Catamarca . After touring this short leg , you access Catamarca at a point that is 80 km . away from Santa María .
When crossing the mentioned stream , fording it because there is no bridge , the traveler has the impression of having entered another World .
Outside the artificial physiognomy of civilized features that the valley presents in Salta , here you are in a truly indigenous environment . The roads are dirt roads , unattended as one advances South , and the frequent villages with adobe houses inhabited by mestizo creoles , closer to the indian than the white .
Poverty is evident when entering Catamarca , a province unjustly forgotten by the rest of the country and abandoned by its own children , that year after year , undertake the inevitable exodus of the one who seeks to overcome the misery and progress materially .
The beauty of the landscape does not diminish in Catamarca , on the contrary , it becomes wild and primitive , providing excellent visual attractions to the winding road , that advances bordering the Sierras de Quilmes . This name comes from the Quilmes indians , one of the tribes of the Ferocious Diaguita Race , those who at the end of the Calchaquí Wars , which lasted 35 years in the XVII century , were carried out in number of 300 families in exile to Buenos Aires and gave rise to the population of the same name .
Between the Sierras Quilmes and Cajón to the West and the Cumbres Calchaquíes and Nevados del Aconquija to the East , the fertile Yocavil valley opens , watered longitudinally by the Santa María River , seat of the city of Santa María de la Candelaria .
I knew Santa María from having gone on a study trip to several archaeological sites of the Yocavil and Calchaquí valleys to investigate the Diaguita culture and , repeating the trip , did not displease me . Naturally , going into the region of Valleys and Ravines made it difficult for me to cross to Tafí del Valle , in Tucumán , in the middle of the region of the Western Forests and separated from Catamarca by the inhospitable Cumbres Calchaquíes and the Nevados del Aconquija . But , fortunately , from Santa María there is a path that goes up to the North , to Amaichá del Valle : from there I could take Route 307 , which crosses the Cumbres Calchaquíes through the Paso del Infiernillo and leads directly to Tafí del Valle . In total , from Santa María to Tafí del Valle , I would only have to travel 80 km . but that would be exhausting due to the state of the Routes and the winding heights to which they arrived .
I ran at more than a 100 km . per hour taking advantage of the good road to Cafayate to save time , because then the march would be slow , at no more than 40 km / h . I had a few hours to think and decided to take advantage of it immediately . The landscape , the fresh wind , the silence of the Valley , everything contributed to make me feel relaxed and calm , predisposed to meditate . But this attitude was somewhat abnormal if you take into account the amount of things that had happened to me lately . The lack of concern showed a very
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