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Published: July 18th 2008
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THe overnight bus from Salta was a small improvement from the one we took to get there due to blankets and a pillow and seats which seemed a bit more comfortable. However, H had been snoring for some time and I had disappeared into my eyemask with the Archers by 11.15pm when they came round trying to serve dinner - I declined on behalf of both of us! And luckily we had set an alarm as we were getting off at La Rioja, before the final destination and nobody bothered to wake us! So, a little bleary we stumbled into the bus terminal, got some times for our next bus and took a cab into the city. For the first time in a while we ended up in a run around for accommodation which surprised us as it's not much of a city, albeit the provincial capital. The first place we saw had a very uninspiring room that was very expensive, the next one (unfortunately 8 blocks away with heavy pack....why did we buy that wine again?) was full and the ones they recommended were full but also uninspiring. Finally we found one back near where we'd started which wouldn't win
any prizes but was a bearable price and we dumped our stuff and dashed off for breakfast.
As mentioned, there's not a lot to La Rioja though it is set amongst the mountains and we managed to book a trip out to a couple of National Parks the following day. It also seemed that the people were more helpful and friendly than we had found recently, not that they had been unfriendly elsewhere but mostly indifferent, but here people were making suggestions for places to stay, helping us when we were looking at the map and the man in the opticians put a new screw in my broken glasses for free.
The following morning was another early start and we were on the bus by 7.15am, surprised to see a total of 9 people as they had told us that there was only one other person going. The first park, Talampaya, was around 2.5 hours drive away so we settled down for a sleep. The park is reknowned for it's burning red sandy rock which has been worn into amazing shapes. It is also important archaeologically with lots of finds from groups that lived in the area long
before even the Incas were there and about who the scientists know little about to the extent that they can't even name them. Our first stop in the park was to see some pictures engraved into fallen rocks showing both animal and people figures along with abstract shapes and other designs. From there the route took us to a number of other interesting locations including a short canyon with huge walls of rock, at one point forming a shape called the chimney. It's difficult to give an impression of the size in photos but the walls reach 150m at some points. The chimney had weird accoustic properties too and when the whole group stood at the bottom and shouted ¡Hola! at the same time it rebounded around the canyon.
From there we went on to other points to see shapes called the cathedral and the monk (for obvious reasons - see picture!). Finally back at the entrance we stopped for some lunch - unfortunately we'd had to choose from a very limited menu though with the same theme as almost every other menu in this country it seems and, while H enjoyed his locro (a kind of corn and
meat stew), my charred, cold toasted sandwich with tasteless cheese and ham and masses of beetroot (yuk!) left something to be desired.
From here we had another hour or so drive to Ischigualasto or Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) in the nearby province of San Juan. The 2 parks are actually part of the same area just separated by a provincial boarder and it seems both provinces wanted their own parks! Valle de la Luna is similarly important geographically but very different in its style. The rocks are much greyer and it all seems a little more bleak - we saw more vegetation in Talampaya - but, as you can imagine, that's where it gets its name from. The guide told us a lot about the geology of the place and the way it was formed but as this was all in Spanish some of it was a little beyond us. It was, however, very much like you would imagine the moon in parts and, with the wind whipping around, quite desolate.
All day I had been feeling pretty feeble and by the time we got into the second park it was becoming a struggle
to get out of the van - a pity as the scenery was pretty amazing. The trip took us further into the park to see some weird and wonderful shapes carved out of the rocks by the wind - I particularly liked 'the submarine'. We also saw the ball court - an area covered with small, but in many cases, perfectly spherical stone balls which have been created by an aglomeration of wind blown sand around a small central item such as a dead insect...a bit like a pearl I guess.
At the end of the trip around the park we had a quick stop at the park entrance while the guide tried to phone the agency to ask for a rebate for us as there had been more people on the trip. Unfortunately the phone kept cutting out so we didn't make much progress and eventually got into the van for the long drive home. When we eventually made it back to La Rioja the bus took us to the office as they told us that somebody was still there and they would drop us back at the hotel afterwards. Face to face the woman did not want
to argue and reimbursed the excess we had paid but when we came out of the office the van was gone so we had to walk back to the hotel. We'd been out for nearly 14 hours and were exhausted but also a little hungry. Sadly the first place we chose produced more stodgy pasta, once they'd got the sauces the right way around, and I could eat very little of it. I have begun to get really tired of all restaurants having almost identical menus with lots of meat, very few vegetables, if any, a range of pastas with red or white sauce and the odd salad which is usually lettuce, carrot and tomato. Food really isn't a strong point of this region....
So, I was still very tired when the alarm went at 6.30 the following morning so that we could catch the 7.40 bus to Mendoza.....but more of that next time.
Hope you're all well and haven't forgotten about us?
Lots of love
S + H xx
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Mike
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Hope you're not too hungry
No you're not forgotten. So interesting to see the range of landscape in Argentina, I suppose it is very big. Great photos. Have you drunk all the wine yet? We have some Oxfordshire wine to drink from a visit on a rare sunny day last weekend. Brief and not exciting HMRC news - Trinity House will be retained and Sterling House closed next year so we'll all be in together.