Another Day in Catamarca

Warm rain all day in the lovely northern city of Catamarca and we took the day off to clean stinky clothes and rest a bit. The city is old and the people appear quite poor but it is a beautiful place with a pleasant treed town square surrounded by colonial buildings the most promonent of which is the "creamy marinara sauce" coloured domed basilica where pilgrims come from all over the country to worship.....pictures later.

All of these northern cities and towns along the way appear to be built around the old narrow gage railway which we are told has been defunct for more than 20 years. Most of the tracks are still visible but heavily overgrown, quaint bridges still in tact, and most notably the old stations are all still standing vancant and in varios degrees of delapidation. Passed this little sad looking train town in the high desert north of La Rioja - weeds blowing down the dusty steets and dirty kids playing on the tracks. The town looks to have been a bustling place when the trains ran with important looking passanger and cargo buildigs but now has no soul. The big city stations such as in Mendoza and Catamarca are quite ornate with rusting but grande iron facades, peeling murals, lifting marble tiled platforms. I don´t know why people or businesses have not taken over these stations and at lest made them into housing, offices or stores...maybe there is still a pipe dream the the trains will roll again.