Mendoza and Surroundings

Hi,

I left you in Bariloche, from where Christiana and I took the bus to Mendoza , a journey that lasted ca. 16 hours. In the last three weeks we have been traveling in and around Mendoza, the first part was with Christiana, but somewhere in the middle of April she left, first to Buenos Aires, and later back home (San Remo), back to normal life again.

So now i'm travelling on my own, at this moment that's a littlebit hard, also because i'm travelling in an area where no tourist are around (the end of the season), and my spanish isn't that good that i can have conversations with locals. Good point is that it forces me to speak spanish.

In and around Mendoza there is a lot to see, so we travelled to the west (200 km), to the north (about 500 km), and later i travelled back south (1000 km) to see all the beautiful parks, canyons, mountains, and some lakes, but this time no glaciers!

The Andes mountains here are very high, in fact the highest mountain of South America is situated here -the Aconcagua- with 6962 m, the biggest mountain outside the Himalayas. If your interested in geology the landscape is bewildering, look down for more details, if your not interested don't look further.


Park in Mendoza

We only stayed a few days in Mendoza, to be honest i wasn't impressed, it is an ordinary city, not as beautiful as BUA, it has a nice park though, and there are some wineries that are worth visiting. We decided to go to the west, where we stayed a day in Uspallata. Uspallata is famous because in and around this place they shot parts of the movie seven years in Tibet. In this place the crew but also BRAD PITT were staying for three months, and Christiana was very excited about that (actually about Brad PITT)! In many restaurants they were showing his pictures. Uspallata itself is a shithole, but the trip to Uspallata itself is worth doing because the Andes here is an geological fiesta. Lots of different sand stone formations in varying colours, steep mountains, etc.



Road to Uspallata

Next day we travell to Puente del Inca. There are two things that are interesting here. A naturally formed bridge, and the Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America (the highest mountain outside the Himalayas ). The bridge has many different colours (green and orange), but the main colour is yellow, because of the sulphur components in the water. The water itself is 35-40 degrees celsius, and it was used as a thermal bath. The hotel that once was here was destroyed by an avalanche.



Puenta del Inca

From here we walk to a park from where we have a magnificent view on the Aconcagua, during this walk we are acompanied by a wild dog, who seems to be liking us very much. The rest of the day he's staying with us, and he is very sad when we leave him at the end of the day (one of the strange things of this part of the world is that the dogs are extremely friendly).



Aconcagua 1



Aconcagua 2

The way back to Uspallata is again breathtaking. For me the most interesting thing is the flat valley that is intersected by a river. This causes erosion, and the wall of the riverbank is 90 degrees steep. I have never seen such a sharp angle. Furthermore we cross los Penitentes, a ski resort, but unfortunately for me there is no snow at the moment...............



Erosion patterns in valley Uspallata 1



Erosion patterns in valley Uspallata 2


Back in Mendoza we meet two old friens from Ushaia (Veronica, a friend of Christiana and Riccard), and after doing a wine tour, Christiana, Veronica and me are going to the north to San Augustin de Valle Fertil.

Back in Mendoza we meet two old friens from Ushaia (Veronica, a friend of Christiana and Riccard), and after doing a wine tour, Christiana, Veronica and me are going to the north to San Augustin de Valle Fertil. From here we visit two parks Ischigualasto (Valle de la Luna) and Talampaya. Christiana wanted to see Valle de la Luna, because she heared that Seven Years in Tibet was shot here (and more of Brad Pitt!). This was not the case (other pictures were shot here, although i don't know which), but for a biologist Valle de Luna is mecca. In the park you can find fossils (f.i.) ferns, but why it is famous is that here the oldest know fossils of dinosaurs (230 million years old) can be found. In the little and not very interesting museum inside the park there are replicas of Eoraptor lunensis, and two other species (Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis, Frenguellisaurus Ischigualastensis). The park is very fragile, and because of that you're only allowed in with a guide. It is very understandable, because the sandstone is very soft, and touching it causes it to crumble. You can see the way the water works here. There is not very much rainfall but when it raines, it raines hard, eroding away sandy structures and leaving behind fossils.



Ischigulasto 1



Ischigulasto 2



Ischigulasto 3



Ischigulasto 4

Another interesting place in the park is a little spot where strange stones can be found. Only here there a round stones. How they are formed i don't know, i couldn't understand our guide completely, he said something about a particle attracting material to form a round sphere. (ANY SUGGESTIONS; chemistry friends????)



Cristall balls??


Furthermore you can find big cactuses around here, some remind me of something (OUCH!!!).



a dirty mind is a joy forever!!

The next park Talampaya is about 80 km further north. This park has different sand srtuctures, and is even more beautiful, it reminds me a littlebit of Zion. There are petroglyphs, made by people that lived here before the Inca period.



Petroglyphs

A part of it is a canyon. You can see the river streaming although no water is anymore present.



A river that doesn't stream

In this part you can find a place where a lot of different trees are growing and therefore it is called the botanical garden. At this site you can also find a place they call the chimney. It is a cavity in the steep wall that goes all the way up. After shouting you hear 4 echoes, wow Pink Floyd!!).



the chimney1



the chimney2



also talampaya

Furthermore there all sorts of strangely shaped rocks with names like the catedral and the monk.



the cathedral


Back to San Juan, Veronica is leaving us for BUA. We stay two more days in San Juan in the hostel Triasico, a new hostel only two months old, and this time it is very neat and almost empty, so we have a room for ourselves. Alberto, one of the owners is bored with his job as teacher at the university of San Juan, but he is gladly willing to give lectures about all sorts of problems of mathematics and physics, so i get a very interesting lecture about new hypotheses in quantum physics.

On the second day to kill the time we go to Zonda, a place hardly worth visiting, but there is a neat lake, and again we meet a nice dog who is willing to show us the area. Two little puppies warmly welcome us twice when we cross the house where they live.

A noteworthy point during this trip was that suddenly our busdriver changed places with another guy. It seemed that he was teaching a friend how to drive a bus. Well we are still alive so who's complaining.

That night i have to say goodby to Christiana. She has to go back to Italy. The working season is starting there. I'm on my own now, and that is a big change. We have been very intense companions for the last two months, and it will take a while before i see her again.

Before leaving San Juan I go to the museum of Natural History and Sciences. This museum is not what i had expected or hoped. I hoped to see a big exhibition on dinosaurs, but in fact there again were the three replicas i earlier saw in Valle de la Luna. In 15 minutes the job was cleared and so i went strolling around the town.



San Juan dazzling's museum

San Juan is a modern town, with nice plazas and parks, no buidlings are left here because it was totally destroyed by an earthquake in 1944. One remarkable thing is the many private clinics that are here. Why that is, I don't know, but i haven't seen it elsewhere in Argentina. San Juan looks different compared to other Argentinian cities. It’s more european, and not so touristic, and it looks like the people have more money than in other Argentinian cities.

While walking through San Juan I encounter a Gaucho parade. Some 1000 men and women on horses are parading through the city. It is fun to watch, especially the little kids that are proudly manouvring the horses through the streets.



Gaucho parade in San Juan

Next place i go to is San Rafael, it's about 200 km south from Mendoza. In San Rafael i stay in the hostel Esperanza, that is almost completely empty. Yep, it is getting autumn, so no more tourists in this part of the world. This give some problems because many tours that could be done are not available at the moment, and the one thing i want to do is the Canyon del Atuel. The only thing i can do is to take the bus to the Dique Valle Grande (a dam). I hope to find a company that can take me with their boat to the canyon, but no activity can be seen around the lake, so i decide to do some hiking on my own. The lake is beautiful, unfortunately my digital camera doesn't function like it should, and thus no pictures from this part. I walk to the other side of the lake trying to get into the canyon. I descend into a gorge along the streambed of river that is dry this part of the year. In the end i have to slide down along big rocks, where normally a current is streaming. Just before i reach the end (where i would have been able to get into the canyon), i encounter a big problem. Here is a (n-ex)waterfall going down 50 meters. No way getting into that canyon. So I have to back. Still this is also interesting. From the point where i'm starting the canyon is 75 meters deep, at the point where I'm ending (4 km further upwards) there is no canyon anymore.



Lake Dique Valle Grande

From the dique i walk back through the Valle Grande. This valley is beautiful with a lot of Cabanas, hostels etc, but hardly any tourists. I encounter a rare group of tourists that are rafting along the Rio Atuel. The rafting itself is not spectacular because the lack of water in the river. Along the river you can see pampas gras, and the stone formations in the gorge make it a pleasant walk, although it is a littlebit long. After 9 ours walking, i take the bus back to San Rafel.



Valle Grande Rio Atuel

In San Rafael i decide to go the next day to Malargue. Malargue is 250 km further south, and there are some interesting things i haven't seen.



Going to Malargue

Most interesting is Payunia, its about volcanoes, and i will tell about that later. I go to the hostel International Malargue, and also here there are no tourists. I'm staying 8 km outside Malargue, so yes i'm in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. That evening we have dinner with a group of people that made a tour to Payunia. We eat a goat (chivito), which is a pleasant change from all the cows you can eat here. I encounter the same problem here. Not many tours can be done here (the one office that was open told me i was the only tourist in town), but fortunately next day i can make a trip to Las Lenas, a SKIING RESORT!!!!



Valley Las Molles

Like everywhere in the Andes the scenery doesn't allow you to sleep in the bus, so we see mountains, vulcanoes, old lava streams, warm water, salt cristals telling about the forces that have formed the Andes. Never did i see it better than during this trip. Remarkable also are the sinkholes you can encounter here. The sinkholes are called Pozo de las Animas (Sinkhole of the ghosts), because the wind can make howling sounds in the holes. The holes are formed because water is dissolving gips and other salts, and taking it away underground.

In Las Lenas however no snow!!



Pozo de las Animas


Back in the hostel, Johnny the hostel owner and also the tourleader informs me that for the next three days there are no tours, and no tourists, and if i want to go to Payunia, i will have to wait for three days.
FUCK, the main reason for making the journey to Malargue was Payunia, but i'm not going to sit on my own for three days. So next day i will go to Santiago.

Fortunately i get sick (rotten salami!?), and i stay in bed for one day, recovering the next. I decide that staying another day -i always can do some internetting- is now an alternative.

That night there arrives a group of tourleaders from Mendoza, which brings some life and on sunday I travel to Payunia with them.



Old lava stream on the way to Payunia

Another unhappy thing however turns out to be the weather on sunday.

ITS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!



Snowing in Payunia

No whats Payunia. Payunia is an area south of malargue, where the greatest density of vulcanoes can be found (they have counted more than 800). They highest is around 3600 meters and has a perfect cone with a lot of snow (and maby a glacier?). Furthermore there is the pampa negra, black because of the activity of the vulcans. The implication of snow, most of the trip we don't see anything. The clouds are hanging not higher than (sometimes) 50 meter, and in the beginning i think i'm in england! (some small hills here and there, and fog).



Not much to see in Payunia


When we drive along the pampa negra, it looks more like the pampa bianca. And then the cold! Its freezing and the wind is howling, and i'm not dressed the way i should. My balls are freezing off (OUCH!).



Ouch that hurts


Fortunately in the end, the weather clears up a littlebit and I see some real but small vulcanoes. Also the pampa is indeed black, and the colouring of the landscape is impressive. Its beautiful indeed. Driving back we encounter groups of Guanaco , the socalled south american camel, and until now i haven't seen many mammals (except people).



PAYUNIA at last



PAYUNIA frozen plants



PAYUNIA coloured valley



PAYUNIA vulcans 1



PAYUNIA vulcans 2



PAYUNIA vulcans 3



That night i take the bus to Mendoza, i'm planning to move on straight to Santiago de Chili. This morning in Mendoza i learn the pass was closed because of SNOW.

Next day better! See you in Santiago

Los endos

The End of Patagonia, final part

This time I am going you to surprise with mountains, glaciers, lakes and also pictures of a boattrip we did here in Patagonia. I think it is going to be quite boring, therefore at the end of this story a little surprise to prevent you from falling asleep.

I left you in Futalafeu Chili, from where we took a hitch hike to Esquel (Arg). We were lucky this time because unlike in Villa St Lucia, we didn´t have to wait two days (but only two hours), before someone had the courage to give us a hitch hike. First we got a hike to the Chilian border, and after letting us through, we met a chilian guy who was going to Esquel, and he was giving us a hike again.

So we arrived in Esquel, a town of around 80000 people, which gave us the impression we were back into civilization. We arrived in Esquel just a few days for Santa Semana (the week around Eastern), and we soon learned that during Eastern most Hotels and Hosteria´s would be full, and that we not would be able to find accomodation around that period. So like Jozef and Maria we should look out for a stable, or something else.


La trochita

First however I wanted to do something absolutely touristic- the train from Esquel to El Maiten-, also described in the book of Paul Theroux, the Old Patagonia Express. It is called La trochita. La trochita is a very small steam train (the distance between the weels is only 73 cm wide), with wooden cottages. Unfortunately this trip can only be made once a year in februari and is 420 km long. We were there in march, so........


Landscape around Esquel

The exiting alternative is a 20 km stretch to a little pueblito through desert PATAGONIAN landscape, and this village with only 10 houses is presumably especially made to receive tourists (there main target are families with little children). In this sparkling town they can make a picture of you together with a sheep for only 1.5 pesos, but there is even more! If you want on a picture with a living FOX it will cost you 2 pesos. Yes the rules of market economy function well here -foxes are more scarce than sheep- so a higher price is justified. You even can do cabalgatas (horse riding). Next time I come I hope I can do paragliding, maby they even have a pool, and hopefully Internet! On the other side, if you see the smile of a 2 year old little girl sitting in front of her father on the horse, that's also something that can make your day!



Alerces tree

To escape Eastern we went to the Parque National Los Alerces, the main attraction in the parque are Alerces trees, these trees can reach respectable ages, and the one we visited (he sends you his regards by the way) had the age of 2600 years. The tree is belonging to the family of larches and its official latin name is Fitzroya cupressoides. They can reach heights of 50 meter.

To come there, we first walked along a beautifull greenblue stream (the rio arrayanes), where people were fishing for trout, and we had to make a boattrip across the lago menendez.


Parque National Los Alerces


Glacier at Lago Menendez

And guess what happened??????????? We saw a glacier! Incredible but true, a real glacier. I can't remember ever to see such a glacier, but it was there silently lying on its back in the sun, doing dripperdeedrop, but this time no cocktails or pina colada(!? yes folks i am becoming mind distorted here). After this beautifull spot, we walked together with 40 other tourists (hand in hand) on a cleaned path (just like in Holland), for about two hours, until we reached good old alerces. She looked quite well for her age, I hope I look like her when I'm that old (but not exactly). That night I tried to be a boy scout by making a fire because the temperatures are dropping at night now rather quickly, but after 30 minutes 'klungelen', i gave up. I should have done like Thesy (she went to the 'kabouters', when se was young)! Fortunately, not all guys are that clumsy, so we met two Argentians from Puerto Madryn, that were willing to share their fire with us to rewarm our frozen extremities.


View on Lago Menendez

Last day in the park we climbed to Lago Escondida (which means hidden lake, and there are many lakes of that name in Patagonia, like rio verde, lago verde, lago azul etc etc). The view over Lago Menendez and Lago Cisne (and the glacier!) made the trip worthwile. I wouldn't have mind however if Lago Escondida had remained hidden.

El Bolson was the next stop of our journey. Years ago el Bolson was the beating heart of a blowing hippie community. It is situated between low hills in small valley. We stay in Chacra el Cielo run by Nano and Rosa. It is a little farm with some small animalls which is situated in the mountains overlooking el Bolson. As a real city boy I never heard the sound of pigs, when they are about to be fed. Well that´s an experience. 6 big pigs and 18 little produce more sound than 10 fighter planes at take-off. Furthermore you stumble over many little puppies and little kittens, 5 or 6 dogs, sheep, goats, chicken, goose and about 50 ducks. Quite cosy, it is. During the night we did something which I almost forgot it exists, we watched a movie on television (Analyse this, a comedy about a maffia guy going to the shrink, leading roles Billy Cristal and Robert de Niro).


View on El Bolson from Chacra El Cielo

In El Bolson we visit a market (which was advertised as a real hippie thing, but we failed to see the difference between this market and every other market selling junk and artesanias) and we made a walk to two waterfalls (one of them is an Escondida by the way). They are not very spectacular, although we saw the footprint of a puma around some garbage cans. Furthermore you can see that Autumn is coming, the poplar is becoming yellow as one of the first trees. Maby it is because these trees are so big, and that their roots aren't able to suck up enough water to supplement the tree. This could be the signal for them to start colouring.



Catarata Escondida

Bariloche is our last stop in Patagonia. It is situated in the lake district, a large area in Chili and Argentina, and although the city i somewhat touristic, the environment is extremely scenic. We make two tours with Overland-Patagonia, mainly because their chauffeur Roberto is very friendly and helpfull, and always willing to stop to let us make pictures.


lago Mascardi

The second trip brings us lago Mascardi, that has the most beautifull green-turquoise color I saw in Patagonia. Around the lake are swarms of humming birds (not sure if they are the same as kolibries), certainly a different species than which we saw in parque Quelat. We drive further into the direction of the Tronador, the biggest mountain in this area (around 3500 meter), and it posseses a huge massive.


Tronador

Here lies the BLACK GLACIER (sorry people but we have a maniacal need to see glaciers). The glacier indeed is black, probably because there is a lot of black dust that has somethings to do with vulcanos and ash. You notice here too glaciers are rapidly declining. I can't imagine that this glacier will be still there in 20 years from now, so if you want to see this black jewel hurry! If you look back into the valley you can see that a very long time ago this glacier was immense. In the valley until a height of about 200 meter you can see the track of the old glacier, because the (flat) rocks are smoothed by the force of passing ice. The glaciers ends into a small lagune. That is not new, but the creme colour of the water, combined with black and white icecubes, gives the impression that we are looking at a mine.


The Black Glacier

The first trip is one of the highlights of my journey so far. We do the seven lakes trip that crosses three national parques (PN Arrayanes, P Nacional and PN Lanin). We also go to Villa la Angostura, which is an area for rich people since Diego Armando Maradona bought some land there, and San Martin de Los Andes, a pittoresk village in a little bay.


The Seven Lakes Tour

Most is beautifull, the lakes are splendid, but just on the moment you start to think you know Patagonia, and nothing new will come any more, we drive to Cordoba pass and see some of the Valle Encantada.


Valle Encantada

We see a little canyon and lots of eroded sand stone formations, that make me think back of the big parks in Amerika (Zion and Bryce f.i.). Our guide Roberto told us that rainfall in this part is only about 300 mm. 60 Kilometer to the west is the annual rainfall 3000 mm.


Sand stone formations


Little canyon in Valle Encontada

In the end the most beautifull sunset I ever saw, completes this breathtaking journey.


Sunset

After two months Patagonia it's time to go further north. Patagonia has been great, I never expected it to be like this. Two months is never enough to see all the beauty that´s here, but autumn is coming fast now. After two colds with a lot of coughing, I want to have a little bit more heat, and what´s MORE IMPORTANT, Mendoza is the heart of the wine country, and there are wineries where you can taste a lot of wine!!!!


Start of Autumn, time to go north

So lets go to mendoza, hop on the bus!


Los Endos