El Mollar continued..

I took Lucho’s advice and walked the 9 km to El Rincón, ando n arrival set off up the side of the ridge following the quebrada Português. On the way I passed three circles of Stones. Following a hunch, I continued to the top. On the top of the ridge, I found another of the circular constructions in much better condition than the others, with a dry stone wall still to great extent intact, as IF some efforts had been made to maintain the structure in the relatively recent past. At two points on the circumference it had larger Stones. This was a place with a strong resonance. There was a feeling of calm. I rested and looked down on the deep valley below on the other side. I felt sure that this was one of the places Lucho had talked about.
It seems a happy coincidence or perhaps a with a little serendipity that I met Leiliana the next morning, who gave me a little more information. She is a very enthusiastic lady in her fortys with a broad indigenous face and an even broader gapped smile. She seems like someone you might meet at a healing gathering in Wiltshire. She runs one of the stalls selling local craftwork and hás the title of shaman. She is from El Rincón, her land being one of thge places that one of the more important standing stones with a craved shaman’s mask was removed from. 
She told me a little of her people’s history, how the survivers of the Spanish conquest had hidden from the conquisadors in a deep gulley in the general area of the place I had climbed to above El Rincón.
She also told me how the Spanish estancia owners had cut the indigenous workers’ tongues off. I took this to be at least partially metaphoric perhaps for the loss of their language. She told that there was however a small group Who spoke this language living in Atacama, and told me that if I passed that way I should tell them about the monoliths in Tafi valley.
She was interested that I came from Britain and knew about standing stones there and wanted to know the approximate size of them. She told me that there was a belief that the original builders of the valley’s stones had perhaps come from overseas. The unearthed remains of the ancestor builders had revealed an abnormally tall race of people up to 2 metres in height. Many of the more recent generation, she told me, were also tall, for the reason she believed that they would need strength and power like the ancestors to deal with times of big changes.
I bid her farewell and promised to send her a photo of Avebury stone circle. She gave me the name of a shaman at Quilmes acarving moving aroundnd asked me to say hello.
The night before leaving El Mollar, we spent the evening sharing a bottle of wine with Lucho. He was in conversational mood and recounted more stories about his experiences with the stones. Many of the stones, he told us, were partially or wholly submerged, and that it was not unusual for people, especially when tending cattle in more remote mountain places, to excavate a little.He went on to retell how a friend of his had dug up a rock with four carved faces and had left it in Lucho’s house. The rock had stayed there three nights, during which time, the family had been unable to sleep due to the noise of what sounded like the carving moving around. In the end they took it back and buried it in the exact same place it had come from

shaman's mask carved onto standing stones

Casasa Viejas and standing stones continued

 19th Jan 2011

It always seemed unfeasable that the story of the monoliths with the archelogical park in El Mollar. There is a fair bit to catchg up on.

            The other evening, I found an opportunity to chat to Lucho our host and Estela’s husband. He had come across us strolling down to the lake to see the sunset on his way to his herd Astride a horse and with the usual gaggle of dogs of different shapes and sizes in tow. He offered Paola a ride on his horse and walked along with me.

            I was interested to hear his opinion about the menhir park. The Stones, he told me, had been ‘robbed’ from various locations in the valley and put above the main Road, and then moved again to the archiological park. He echoed my sentiments about the lack of any feelingf of presence in the park. ‘It is the place that is important’ He Said. He advised me to Go to El Rincón where He assured me that there were places where you could ‘really feel something’ El Rincón I knew was where a great deal of the monoliths had been removed from.

            Lucho also confirmed something I had already discovered, that there were important archiological sites near his house including standing Stones that had not been removed.  The name of the indigenous community ‘Casas Viejas’ of course means ‘old houses’ in Spanish. The land on which Casa Viejas is strewn with boulders, perhaps I had thought cynically why it had been set aside for the Indians ; ‘rock growing country’as Paola put it referring to her family’s in joke about their ancestral land in Northern Italy. With some time and observation however, the land becomes more than ajumble of rocks and reveals the remenents of human constructions – ancestral dwellings, the most striking being the two or three circles of Stones of about ten paces in diameter. One had a large upright Stone placed at what seemed to be the entrance. We found a cluster of three on the mountain side off the Road to Tafi, the next town. There is also one in Lucho’s garden, where I am sitting writing this with a pear tree planted in the centre, whose shade I am enjoying very much in the heat of the afternoon.

 upright stone . Part of a circle of stones at Casa Viejas

 circle of stones, remnants ancient building , Casas Viejas

Travelogu: Argentina, menhirs, tribes and Shamans

Archeological park El Mollar

                                                        detail of standing stone

                                         casas viajas indigenous community