Sunday 12 December 2010

Moments in Chaco Time: Mollinos

Another Wichi, indigenous town that grew from it’s position on the railway line. The old prosperous buildings now housing the new wealth: the agricultural suppliers, the banks and the mobile telecoms, are congregated around where the station once stood. We’re sitting in the plaza under a few substantial shade trees, our first prospect for accommodation having drawn a blank. We’d cycled up and down the obvious streets looking for an obvious sign. We then start asking around. Yes there is a hospedaje, its two blocks along on the corner. We search, but no obvious establishment appears. Ask again: it’s obvious that it exists, everybody is sending us into the same area. Slowly we are narrowing it down. After five attempts we’re taken by the hand to an anonymous gate, incidentally not on the corner, but in the same block everybody kept pointing out. Like the shops, everyone knows where everything is, so there’s no need for a name board or an indication on a wall. Yes, they do have a room available. Another perfect refuge, just when it was required.