The Journey North Begins: San Juan and Valle Fertil

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There is no direct bus from Mendoza to San Augustine de Valle Fertil so connected in San Juan.

San Juan was a pleasant stop over and gave us a taste of a smaller Argentinean city. We are starting to look more and more like foreigners as we go north. In the main square, a guy asked to take a picture of our blue eyes. It actually came out really nice! Right after that, a group of school children rushed us handing us little pins with Argentina's colors on it in honor of their independence day (25 de Mayo).

From San Juan we continued north to Valle Fertil. This is small town of 5000 people. There are two main excursions from the city, we did the one to Valle de la Luna in the Parque Provincial Ischigualasto. This excursion takes you through the land where nothing lives a.k.a. a desert valley. The ground is covered with shrubs and cacti. In some spots, the earth looks like the moon (hence the name Luna). Dinosaur remains have been found here but the highlights were the cool formations in the rocks and the circular rocks. They have a magnetic iron center and when the rain comes (very rarely) the particles mix in the water attach to the core, creating a circular rock. As the wind erodes the ground, more of these rocks appear.

Next, we are off to Cafayate!

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