around Tucumán Argentina and showing you some  of the highlights this province has to offer  

situated in northern argentina Tucumán may be  small but it is packed with unique attractions  

in this whirlwind tour we'll experience  a myriad of landscapes ranging from lush  

jungles to arid deserts we'll visit mysterious  monolithic stone carvings we'll sample some of  

the famous deli meats and cheeses this region is  known for will stand under the shade of an 800  

year old cactus will devour some delicious  empanadas and will also visit some of the  

largest pre-colombian ruins in all of south  america so let's go explore Tucumán shall we

good morning good morning  guys greetings from Tucumán  

argentina greetings from a random gas  station somewhere in the countryside  

today we're doing a bit of a day trip we're going  to be visiting daffy del valle right and the ruins  

of gilmes it's a full day tour we were picked up  at 8 a.m yeah apparently it's going to be 12 hours  

so 12 hours on the road and i'm really excited  because both of these destinations look so scenic  

we've seen some photos and uh yeah we're gonna  just be basically exploring the best that this uh  

smallest province in argentina has to offer  exactly so first fueling up we're here at  

the gas station as you can see behind us  and yeah we'll be on our way on our way  

we left the city behind and watched the landscape  transform from city to farmland to subtropical  

jungle this province is nicknamed the garden  of the republic because it's a very productive  

agricultural area well guys we have reached our  first stop of the day we've been driving about an  

hour and a half it's now 9 30 in the morning and  just here to the side we have el indio which is a  

statue that overlooks the valley the landscape has  really changed from this morning now we're like  

in the middle of the jungle and it's so green  and lush yeah and dense dense yeah impenetrable  

exactly that's the word yeah it's an enormous  difference we were driving through uh farmland  

yeah and uh um where basically we saw the sugar  cane production and lemon production and now we're  

out here yeah and right now we're at 850 meters  and we're going to keep climbing i think we're  

reaching almost 4 000 meters today 4000 meters  will be 12 000 feet roughly quite high up so  

it's gonna be high and uh let's hope we don't  get sick with altitude the sickness but uh yeah  

yeah it's just down in the seat where are we  so far has been a very nice uh trip it's been  

like an hour and a half and we have a driver that  actually is a tourist guide so he keeps feeding us  

information about everything that we go through  and a very nice guy he's very knowledgeable and

we did a little bit of shopping this is  a little souvenir for my mom who collects  

magnets we got the little llamas and two  people in traditional clothing cholitas  

very cute i think they told me it's made out  of copper so yeah i thought it was a nice  

little gift picked it up now we're getting  back in the car and continuing our excursion  

we then came driving towards the town of el  modade to visit a rather mysterious group  

of carved stones that were found scattered  across the valley and brought to this area  

okay another schedule stop we've now come to a  place called los menides and menitas actually i  

believe it's the name of these tall monolithic  monolithic monuments sculptures yeah they're  

honestly a bit of a mystery because our guide was  explaining that the civilization responsible for  

carving these just disappeared without a trace  and they didn't have a written language so very  

little is known about them but we can see some  kind of like repeating elements in these stones  

so there's a lot to do with fertility some of  them have faces like human faces there's llamas  

and just like geometric patterns yeah this  is a civilization that was 3 000 years  

in the making and one day for some reason  that it is unknown it's just vanished and  

also i should mention like all the stones that  you see standing here they've been collected  

from around the valley and brought to this  place so they can be better taken care of  

so another thing i wanted to mention is that  this attraction is free of charge and as  

part of the entry to this place there is a local  guide who walks around with you for about five  

minutes and just shares a little bit of the  history of what they know about this place and  

the culture responsible for these carvings and  then you're free to wander around on your own  

snap some photos so it's been a really cool stop  oh and they have toilets here too so that's good  

then it was onward to the town of tafi del vade  which is a popular destination for anyone doing  

a road trip around Tucumán Argentina we were  starting to get a little peckish at this point  

so we stopped to buy some artisanal deli meats  and cheeses and we also made an unexpected friend

i'm buying some salami and cheese  the cheese has chimichurri in it  

oh amazing all right so we've arrived  in uh taffy del valle you got it yeah  

what we did first is we went into a store  that sold regional products we grabbed some  

regional wine you want to show that one off  this one is called seven cows it's from the  

calcium valley yep 2016 tanat grape so we're not  going to drink it now we're in the middle of a  

tour at high altitude this is coming home we made  a new best friend over here made a friend hi we're  

eating uh basically salami and cheese sandwiches  these look delicious i haven't had one yet but so  

this is a cow's cheese with chimichurri different  spices and we also bought a salami shall i make  

you a sandwich yes please very good yes please  very good we found a little bakery homemade stuff  

this guy likes it too and this guy  likes it a lot look at him the moss  

isn't it delicious i don't know how he was able  to smell the salami from half a block down because  

he is this is basically our uh our our our snack  we're gonna be having a lunch later yeah it's like  

what 11 11 30 right now maybe we can have a bit of  a later lunch this will tie this over until then  

what do you say buddy we got a new  best friend i got the retriever

at this point in the trip we reached mirador  del infirniro or the lookout to hell a bit of  

a dramatic name but we were at an altitude of  3042 meters above sea level so maybe whoever  

named this place wasn't feeling at their best this  is the highest traversable pass in the province so  

we stopped to take photos and my dad and samuel  also made friends with some alpacas and the pig

and then after a bit more driving we reached the  next attraction the grandfather cactus well guys  

next stop we are now standing underneath the  grandfather cactus over here this is called  

cardone in spanish and this one we've been told  is over 800 years old apparently this type of  

cactus only grows between one centimeter and  a centimeter and a half per year and this one  

is over eight meters tall so quite impressive  it's a giant it's a monster but it's a beauty of  

nature over here already the vegetation is very  very strange there is nothing uh other than this  

cactus and some uh very uh low uh brush yeah like  little shrubs it's very dry no more animals are  

seeing just a burro over there but no no cows or  not horses and and the area here reminds me a lot  

to the southern states and in the u.s  like new mexico arizona those places  

so yeah we continue because they're waiting  for us let's go let's go let's keep going

so we have just pulled into the town of maicha  del vade i believe that's how it's pronounced  

and we're gonna have some lunch here we stopped at  a restaurant where we've already placed our order  

we have some tamales umitas and three different  types of empanadas i ordered you some beef chicken  

and there's mozzarella with corn so that's what  we'll be eating here and yeah it looks like a  

nice quiet little town very colorful though  lots of flowers and yeah we're just gonna rest  

because we've been driving all morning long  need a little break gotta stretch your legs  

and fill the belly umitas tamales and  empanadas were always on the menu over  

the course of our travels in northern  argentina but we didn't tire of them  

after this quick but delicious lunch  it was onwards to the ruins of gilmes

the sacred city of gilmes is located in the  kalchaki valleys and was the site of the  

largest pre-hispanic settlements in the country  dating back to 850 a.d this site occupied over  

30 hectares and at its height about 5 000 people  lived here well guys we have made it to our next  

destination we are currently visiting the ruins  of gilmes admission was 100 pesos per person  

and apparently this is the second largest  archaeological site in south america after  

machu picchu got to tell you we've just arrived  and it's pretty impressive you can see some of  

the construction here behind me all stone so we're  going to be exploring this place on foot also as  

you can see i've peeled off several layers it is  hot out here oh my we are in the desert quite the  

change from this morning and we were all bundled  up like it was winter or something so yeah let's  

go check this out now time for a quick history  lesson about the gilmes because everyone knows  

it's a beer it's the name of a popular argentine  beer but there's more to it yeah no that's  

that's the name of these originary peoples from  argentina here this the thing is like these these  

these people the kilmest they were escaping from  the uh inca domination the incas from peru were  

advancing uh and attacking and defeating  all other tribes and they were incorporating  

to their societies you know so the kilmers were  escaping finally they reached this destination  

and they settled here okay now what i see and  i analyzed it from a point of view of strategy  

is a perfect place because on the back you have  a huge mountain there so you cannot be attacked  

from the back on the side you have fortifications  to protect from both flanks right so the only way  

the enemy could advance was really from the front  and the enemy in those days were the spaniards  

because the kiln mess dominated all the  other groups that live in these areas  

and they assimilated them you know they they  became part of the fight against the spanish  

it took the spaniards 135 140 years to be able  to control this uh this this group of people  

and the only way they were able to do it is  because they they put a siege to this fortress  

and they cut the supply of water and food  for the wind is blowing oh it's picking up  

they cut them off from the supply of food and  water and that was the way that they could finally  

control them not by war because for 140 years  they couldn't do it but at the end by hunger and  

thirst and the spaniards what they did is they  took the remaining population of about 2 800  

and they marched them on foot all  the way to buenos aires only 840  

150 arrived alive the rest perished along the  way and they settled them in the locality that  

today it is known around buenos aires as  kilmess where the famous beer is brew and  

the place is not called gilmes because of the  beer it's called killmens because of these native  

people that were brought all the way up to there  okay that's the story what happened to the uh  

the ones that survived or how did it story end  with the ones that uh were left in buenos aires  

i'm not 100 sure but uh we'll find out i always  like to know everything so i need to find this out

yeah and this is the story and  if you have a chance and you go  

you know this is a very very  very underrated place okay  

people go mostly to salta and jujuy but Tucumán  is very close and if you do the circuit come  

on hop over to the province of Tucumán and it's  just a short ride if you rent a car or whatever  

and you'll you'll really enjoy it you  know this place is really worth visiting

do

it's time for a little update from the sammy  boy hello hello i haven't been on the video  

much today no you've been droning and filming  oh man this is this was a droning delight out  

here this is drone country central i mean not  only did we have we basically had most of this  

attraction to ourselves for about the first half  an hour yeah now there's some school groups and  

some tour buses that have arrived so it's a little  busier still not packed but man it's been just an  

incredible day like i just can't get over how the  landscapes have changed we started off with fields  

yeah fields then we went through a very lush  part of the of the mountains it's like a jungle  

basically like a jungle yeah and then suddenly  we took a couple turns and it was completely dry  

arid landscapes changed it felt like we  were entering entering the salta hahui world  

i just have a question for you it's  like over 30 degrees out why are you  

still wearing flannel i don't know why i've been  i've been cold for so many days i'm reluctant to  

shed my layers i guess also i didn't i didn't put  on sunscreen so this is kind of my sun protection

that was the final stop of our whirlwind tour  of the province of Tucumán we then started  

the long drive back to the city of san miguel de  tucuman argentina which was three hours in total  

by the time we got back into the city it  was night time and we were pretty hungry  

we went to a local pizzeria called  leiskina for sam's favorite food of all  

looks like you guys are as hungry as  you are tired i think more tired than  

hungry to be honest but here we are at sam's  request who demanded pizza for dinner yeah  

i didn't see anyone uh scratching and clawing no  protesting yeah it was a long day yeah 12 hours  

on the dock we left at eight o'clock a.m and  we got here eight o'clock p.m yeah this place  

opens right at eight so we got here right when  it opened we had a nice trip today we saw a lot  

of beautiful things grasses right guys as we were  getting the wine the pizza game too cheers cheers

it's a blend of red grapes perfect perfect  for pizza and there's greasy pizza yeah oh  

look at all that cheese queso so we got two  kinds what do we have anchovies this one is  

called marinara with anchovies and the other one  is your classic uh neapolitan style dig on in guys