Talampaya Park

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Oh my god theres a knock at the door! It´s only 7am, but today we are going to Talampaya Park north of Valle de la Luna. We have been told it is equally as good but totally different with regards to scenery.

After our long and bumpy bus ride we arrived at our destination in the scorching desert heat. We were told that the best and cheapest way to see the park was by mountain bike!(15 pesos,3 quid) We got our bikes and helmets and off we went through the soft and bumpy terrain.
This place is a lot smaller version of the grand canyon, 125 million years ago it was a big river surrounded by farmland we later found this out by some Petroglifs (ancient drawings on the rocks of farmers herding their Llamas)

The tour took us to about 4 to 5 stops, these included a Botanincal garden (this place is dry as a bone but this garden was still green and healthy looking), an echo chamber (this was a half funnel like groove in the side of the cliffs) our group shouted various words which after a good couple of seconds echoed clearly 4 or 5 times (we were told with the correct wind it can be as many as 7) This was cool! In ancient times this chamber was used by the indians as a way to communicate with the spirits (But they could also may have been high as kites as well)

Another stop on our hard going bike tour was ´the cathedral´. This was a spire type rock formation also in the side of the cliffs. This place like Valle de la Luna also had little wildlife but we did see Llamas and a Condor! Our last stop was to be the Petroglifs we were told a lot of information by our excellent guide who didn´t speak a word of English so we didn´t learn a thing,but they were good none the less!

Although we enjoyed the tour we were glad it was over because it was such hard work(especially after a good bbq)

Now that we had completed our mission of seeing both parks we decided to leave tomorrow for Mendoza.

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