The battle for Quilmes

Amaicha de Valle is about halfway between Tafi de Valle and Cafayate. A mere blip in most travellers minds. But, on a whim, we decided to stop there yesterday and go in search of Quilmes, the site of one of Argentina´s best preserved pre-Columbian ruins.

Quilmes - part of the site has been badly reconstructed but you get the idea

Amazingly, we managed to find a English speaking guide to take us to the ruins - a Swiss girl who´d stopped in Amaicha de Valle a year earlier, fallen in love with one of the local tour operators, and stayed to help him build his business. We were gobsmacked. Amaicha de Valle has one tiny plaza, a couple of bad restaurants and a whole bunch of dust. Almost nothing else. We asked her how on earth she kept herself occupied. The boredom was taking its toll, she said. We´d met her at a difficult time. She had a big decision to make - she couldn´t stay in Amaicha de Valle for much longer or she might go crazy. She hadn´t spoken English for months though, and she seemed grateful for the chance to chat with us.

As it turns out, the local tour operator she had fallen in love with was the son of one of the local chiefs. His father had passed on the history of the region to him and he was committed to keeping that history alive. Nearby Quilmes is an important part of that history, but privatisation and poor education have taken a hefty toll on the site.

The Quilmes tribe picked their spot wisely - they could spot those pesky Spaniards a mile away

The ruins of Quilmes date from about 1000AD. In its heyday, more than 2000 indigenous families lived here. The house of the chief sat at the top of a large hill with views in all directions. The town itself spread down the hill and into the valley, surrounded by a large stone wall. Its defensive position kept the Incas and the Spaniards at bay for about 150 years. Finally, the Spaniards worked out a way to cut the food and water supply to the town. When the women and children eventually ventured down in search of supplies, they were captured and killed. Seeing this from their vantage point on the hill, the men came to their aid and Quilmes fell. Two thousand people from Quilmes - those still alive after the battle - were marched 1500km on foot to Buenos Aires, where they could be more easily controlled by the Spanish. Very few survived.

Fifteen years ago the Government leased the ruins to an Argentine businessman. The lease was to last ten years and he was meant to pay a tiny percentage of his profits to the local people each month. He built a hotel and museum on top of ancient burial grounds. He added a pool which drained the nearest village of its water and he never paid them a cent. Last month the villagers blockaded the one road into the site and reclaimed it as their own. A week before our visit they reopened the ruins (not the hotel or the museum) to tourists and began conducting their own tours of the site. Unfortunately, many of the guides know only the history they have been taught in school, but they´ll improve with time. Thankfully our swiss guide, who has been working with archeologists and researchers, helped us with the rest.