Day 30 - 31 The Wonders of Cuyo

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Photo Album: The Wonders of Cuyo
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We reached the village of Uspallata early in the evening, about 100+ Km on the western outskirt of Mendoza, and had to settle into a local hostel for the night.

The hostel at Uspallata had given us the worst experience so far.  Although it looked clean enough, but a bed bug discovered Julia.  She was bitten badly on a few spots.  By the way, no insects like me.  Anyway, it was just before 6 am, still dark.  So we decided no use complaining, just leave as all payments were already settled at check-in.  Then what really got me worked up was, the front door was dead locked.  To cut a long story short, we woke up the owner in the house next door finally and berated them for this deadly practice of locking the door and not letting anyone know where the key was.  In case of fire, this is absolutely deadly.  He offered to refund all monies for the bed bug problem, and we left in disgust.

As it turned out, the timing was perfect.  Route 52 to Mendoza City is a gravel track which meanders over a high mountain pass to the other side.

And dawn was breaking as we climbed the mountain with the grand Andes in sight.

As we peaked the pass at about 3000 meters, the sun was barely showing through thick mist on the other side. The visibility was at time, down to less then 5 meters, on a narrow, winding track, with blind corners and steep cliffs on the side, it all meant a very interesting and slow drive.  

But the reward came about 20 mins later.

After the sun gathered strengths, the mist went away, a sea of cloud with the sun on top panned into the horizon….Wow!  

We had a greedy time with our cameras….despite the 1 Deg temp. outside. When adrenaline is running, what cold!!?

The best moment came when we reached the top of the clouds, with the flowing mist around us, it was simply an epic experience.

But once we dropped below the cloud top, it was all misty and almost zero visibility again, until we slowly descended another 400 meters to get to the cloud base, the foothills came into clear view.  It was a 50 km drive on loose gravel meandering through this mountain pass, and it took nearly 3 hours to complete.

We bypassed Mendoza city, and went straight towards our next destination, St Agustin del Valle Fertil in San Juan Province, a good 400 Km away.  Funny, when we didn’t look for them, everywhere was service stations, but as we drove into San Juan City to get fuel, it was nowhere to be found, until the very last moment.

The drive from San Juan was pretty plain sailing. The final 100 Km of the road was through a semi arid desert with undulating roads, like a roller coaster, up and down and up and down…which reminded of Death Valley in California.  The road was built on sand dunes, and it follows the profile of the landscape.

And a family on their long bike tour...really admired them.

We settled into a motel room in the village of St Augustin del Valle Fertil by the late afternoon, and looked forward to seeing some wonderful landscape in the nearby Moon Valley.

The Fertil Valley, is a desert area, and we had a cool morning with a perfect day ahead.  So after a leisurely breakfast, we drove 60Km or so down the road to explore two UNESCO listed World Heritage sites, the Ischigualasto ( Valle de la Luna ) and Talampaya National Parks.

It was a good hour of drive to the entrance of Ischigualasto ( Valle de la Luna) or Moon Valley, due to its moon like geological outlook.  We were greeted by the rangers, and after going through a ritual of form filling, and an introduction video ( in Spanish ) of the park, we drove into a moonscape, fashioned by million years of water and wind corrosion.

In many ways, it reminded me of Mungo National Park in the south western part of New South Wales and some parts of UTAH, USA.

The drive into the park along gravel roads, was simply sensational with varied geological formations wherever one looks.

Good pleasant weather, 23 degree mild, but can be hot under the sun. It was dry and pleasant, typical desert condition.

Reluctantly, it was time to drive out to our next destination. But we had covered over 40 Km inside the park in a space of 4 hours.

Twenty minutes or so later,  we crossed the provincial border of Cuyo and Rioja Provinces.

60 Kms later, we were at the rangers' office of Talampaya National Park, another site that is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Unfortunately, the rules here are different, we all had to leave our car at the car park, and waited for a bus for a guided tour into this geological wonder.

The wait was not short, but it was worth it.  Look at these shear walls....

And the ancient people left their mark in the form of rock arts.

And walls flanking a flat valley, normally flooded with water in the wet season.

These would be a magnet for the extreme rock climbers.

More ancient stories.

Just never ending geological wonders.

The ancient Egyptians would have a fantastic time here.

But good things must all come to an end, it was a three hours worth of landscape feasting, on a perfect day.

The township of Villa Union was only 60 Km or so to the north, and we reached there, just in time for a glorious sunset.

Next Post : Day 34 - 35 Norte Treasures
Other Posts: Index - 2013 Argentina-Chile self drive.