The Ruins of Quilmes, and Hector Cruz.....

The Quilmes Indians were the longest hold outs to the Spanish, hanging in there for 30 years before they gave up and were marched down to BA provience.....

the huge maze of connecting stone foundations went on up the hillside....

Several families would live in one foundation, with roofs of cane around the edges and an open courtyard for working in the center....as we went up the hill, the dwellings became more elaborate and smaller...for the head honchos ...

And here is an example of  their main source of food, milk, clothing,  hauling, and music (they made flutes out of the bones)......you can see the nursing baby's feet in back of mom....

The biggest surprise of the day was on the road back to Tucuman...This amazing place was built by artist Hector Cruz....it went on and on, with a museum, gallery spaces for his work, and all these courtyards.....

he had piles of rock of every color and texture laying around, that he used for all the designs....

He has had some of his designs woven into tapestries for sale like this one....

Our guide talked of a huge controversy between this guy and the Quilmes Indians...Back in 1992, Cruz got a ten year concession for $110.00 at the Quilmes ruins site, and was supposed to pay the Indians a percentage of the profits.   He built a big hotel and ran it, without paying a dime to the Indians up until 2007, when the Indians were finally able to eject him.  He still lives and works at the above museum site, with bitter feelings flying around...if there is not another side to the story, I have such a hard time imagining such a "bad guy" making such beautiful art.......

And your food shot from Tucuman for this week is special!  I had a great tamale and corn muffins in the foreground, and dave had mashed potatoes, cheese tart, and a llama steak....he described it as similar to venison back strap without the gaminess, with a hint of sweet.......