Though not on any map, Cañini is hugely important to the Campero family. This is where Nieve’s, for example, was born, in what is nowadays a ruined stone house on the side of a mountainside. The family has - or at least had - several similar houses, kilometres apart, and where they slept depended on the work they needed to do, the location of their cows, and the season.

Two brothers, former police officer Lauro (who lives in Santa Victoria) and Emiliano (who lives and works in Buenos Aires), have summer houses here, in a secluded location just off the ‘road’, which runs parallel to River Cañini, after which the family named their modest settlement.

Later in the year, from around mid-September, this dry arid ground will be transformed into lush green countryside as the rains come and the river fills out its banks. In February 2025, the Festival of Cows returns, which for the family and friends means celebrating the animals and the landscape with a big fiesta here.

We plan to return for this special festival. Family and friends from Buenos Aires to Salta to Santa Victoria have told us it’s unmissable, and because of the rains, very different from the August photos and videos presented below.