Amaicha del Valle

Land of the Pachamama Museum and a unique Community Winery 

In the town of Amaicha, in Tucumán, south of the Calchaquí Valleys, on Provincial Route 307, it is a bit strange to find the museum of the Salta born artist Héctor Cruz. It is a particular collection that honors the Pachamama, surrounded by sculptural courtyards almost like a small Park Güell by Gaudí but in the Andean style of northwestern Argentina.

A room dedicated to geology exhibits the rich minerals of the area and has a scale model of the Calchaquí Valleys, with its towns, peaks and rivers.

Then, the anthropology room shows the pre-Inca cultures that inhabited the region, their customs and way of life.

In the last room are the valuable tapestries manufactured by the artist, made with wool from llamas and sheep.

The circuit to visit each of the previous exhibitions is an open-air excursion, so that the enormous stone sculptures that Cruz designed to venerate Mother Earth, the Sun God - Inti - and the Moon Goddess - Quilla - can be appreciated.

A round table for the caciques -also made of different stones- is also part of the circuit. Also accompanying the tour are snakes and curious animals of interpretation of the artist in the midst of haughty cacti.

Then, continuing along the same provincial route 307, it is time for a break and a wine tasting at the Los Amaichas Community Winery. There are only three wineries in the world to be managed by aborigines and Los Amaichas is the only one in Latin America. A project called Sumak Kawsay ("good living" in Quechua) that integrates the work of fifty families in the area to achieve a red wine fruit of communion and shared effort, with an organic profile: frosts are fought with burning excrement and pruning techniques are ancestral. 

Two varietals are produced: the innovative and very successful Criollo (from vineyards more than a century old) and Malbec (with vines from the Province of Mendoza). 

Promoted by the government, Los Amaichas stimulates the self-management of nearby producers in terms of sustainability, favoring the regional economy.