Cacheuta, Its Train And Thermal Waters
On January
10, 1934, disaster struck Cacheuta, a small town nestled in the valley of the
Mendoza River in western Argentina. A
glacial flood washed away constructions along hundreds of kilometers, including
the luxury spa hotel and the railway line. The flash flood killed few people but wrecked
the valley and ruined its economy. The fatal
fall of a chunk of glacier into the river brutally ended the golden age of
Cacheuta. Wellness tourism dwindled
until the mid-80s when a small hotel was built and a public thermal water park opened.
The hot
thermal waters had made Cacheuta famous since, legend has it, the Inca king
Tupac Yupangui visited the region to rest with his troops. Later the Spanish conquistadores came, but wellness
was not in their plans; they were looking for a treasure of gold and silver allegedly
hidden by Cacique Cacheuta. Another legend
is that Cacheuta never existed. In the
Quechua/Huarpe languages, cacheuta
means meeting place in a valley.
After the
rough and tumble post-independence period, from the mid-19th century
to the 1930s, Argentine economy grew at an impressive pace by exporting
agricultural products. In 1913,
Argentina’s income per person was on par with that of the United Kingdom and
France, far ahead of its Latin America neighbors. The country was crisscrossed by railroads and
as early as 1899 indulged in first-world luxuries like the gran balneario of Cacheuta. The
106 rooms of the thermal bath hotel attracted Buenos Aires’ crème de la crème. Wealthy
tourists travelled by train, as Cacheuta, 38 kilometers from Mendoza had its
own railway station. The train ride was
no Orient Express luxury, but the journey was safe and comfortable.
Cacheuta, 1240
m above sea level was the third stop on the itinerary of the mythical 248 kilometer-long
Trans Andine Railways which linked Mendoza to Santa Rosa de los Andes, Chile. Like most Latin American railways, it had
been built by train-addicted British capitalists. The train began its maiden journey across the
Andes towards Valparaiso and Santiago, Chile in 1910. Engineering was state of the art for the
period: the line requires many bridges and tunnels. In the Andes the tracks followed an old mule
track, probably dating from the Incas.
The tank locomotive was equipped with a rack and pinion system to manage
climbs and steep descents. When accident-free,
the journey took 36 hours from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, but frequent derailments,
rock falls and snow drifts left passengers stranded in the cold, sometimes for
days. It was more an adventure than
anything else, but at the beginning of the 20th century better land
alternatives didn’t exist.
The Cacheuta
baths were built on the bank of the Mendoza River in a deep gorge cut through
the pink granite. The hot mineral waters
(30⁰ to 55⁰) spring from fractures within the
rock. According to the brochure, their therapeutic
properties cure many ailments. To give
credence to their medicinal virtue, in 1910 analyses were carried out by none
other than the United States Geological Survey.
(As much as this blogger enjoyed the spa ambiance, she believes that water
therapy is more myth than medical treatment.) Cacheuta enjoyed its golden period during the
First World War, when Latin America’s well-heeled could no longer patronize
European spas.
After the 1934
devastating flood, the tracks were repaired but the baths of the gran balneario de Cacheuta were
not. Having its main attraction out of
service, the hotel lost its patrons and was left to decay. The famous bird-cage elevator, vital to the
rheumatism stricken patients stopped forever. It is still visible in the yellow tower, the
sole relict of Belle Epoque grandeur.
During the
second half of the 20th century politicians on both sides of the
border subjected the railways to ignominy even worse than the flood. The train service chaotically continued until
1977 when feuding between Chile and Argentina’s respective dictators brought
them close to war. After this short
interruption, traffic resumed until 1984 when the last cargo train crossed the
Andes. Sadly but expectedly, one of the
most spectacular and scenic railroads[1]
of the world was never a commercial success, and in 2017, it seems unrealistic
to refurbish the old railway line. In 1870, the Trans Andine
railroad was the visionary project of two Chilean brothers of English descent; now
at the same location across the Andes investors are projecting an even more
ground-breaking railway: the US$ 3.5 billion Bioceanico Aconcagua Corridor.
Andean topography, geology, altitude and climate are challenging the
project engineering. Projected to initially
carry 24 million tons of cargo per year through a 52.5 km long tunnel dug at a
3.200 m altitude, the private sector venture has still to secure funding.
In 1984, a
modern, but much smaller hotel was built on the ruins of the grand thermal
hotel. With just 17 rooms, it feels like
a mom-and-pop business. Luckily, there
are no grand plans to expand it, a good idea since the Argentinian cordilleira is littered with ruined and
spooky thermal hotels[2]. Guests of the Cacheuta hotel can escape the
hassle of modern life by resting in their comfortable rooms without television
and Internet; they can bath in the more than ten hot thermal water pools; sweat
in dry and humid saunas; relax under the expect hands of masseurs and last but
not least, taste Argentinian food and sip Malbec wine from the neighboring
wineries.
The new hotel
was built where the old one stood. In light
of the past disaster, it may seem like a silly choice. Actually it is not. Rio Mendoza has been tamed by a dam and a
reservoir. The 1934 glacial flood disaster
cannot happen again, as global warming has totally melted the culprit glacier! In the event of large chunks of ice getting
loose, the military will immediately get into action and blow them into pieces;
an appreciated peacetime skill. Of
course, dams can burst, but this is another story.
[1] With striking vista of the Mt Aconcagua, altitude
6961m, the highest mountain outside Asia.
[2] Termas El Sosneado.
http://historiasladob.blogspot.com.br/2014/03/el-viejo-hotel-abandonado-y-una-curiosa.html
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