From Malargue we headed back to San Rafael, spotting the cosmic ray detector tanks along the way and detouring by the very scenic Cañon Atuel. Tthen, after a quick lunch, hit the road to get to Tupungato for the night. This is about 60km south of Mendoza, where we actually wanted to go but, as it was the big harvest festival/vendimia weekend there was nowhere to stay.. Anyway we were happily bowling along in the afternoon sunshine noticing the occasional hailstorm protection shelter when the skies darkened and we ran into first a rainstorm then running water across the road and then the traffic stopped as we reached the evidence of a recent hailstorm, lying between 25 and 30cm deep. Looked like snow and had the same effect as a couple of snowflakes on the M25.
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