17 - 20.12.10 - San Juan (Parque Provincial Ischualasto & Parque Nacional Talampaya)

San Juan made a very convenient stop over to reach the small-ish town of San Agustin de Valle Fertil 250kms north where we were able to take day trips to the UNESCO world heritage listed parks of Ischigualasto (also know as the Valle de la Luna) and Talampaya. Valle Fertil was a strange little town in the middle of the desert, 4 hours from any significant settlement over a particular bumpy road. On arrival we were surprised to see 3 extremely friendly guys from our hostel who gave us a free ride to our extremely poor accommodation. The worst so far. We were advised that a local tango was being held in town which, after worrying about looking like gringo fools (not for the first time) actually turned out to be a kiddies traditional dance awards ceremony with no participation required whatsoever - pheww!! (nor any real tango at all!)  Something, yet again, was lost in translation...

We took a trip to the Parque Ischualasto, aka the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) which has been formed by two million years of erosion. The park is considered one of the most significant dinosaur graveyards on the planet. Our spanish-only speaking guide seemed to do a very convincing job of explaining how the luna landscapes were formed by tectonic plates sliding to create a plethora of interesting rock formations and how events throughout the Triassic period allowed the magnificant fossils to be formed. Sadly we understood none of it. Our Spanish language skills stretch to asking for bus tickets, directions, food in restaurants etc but our 6 week beginners spanish lesson in Leeds missed the bit on South American paleontological history. None-the-less, the rock formations and desert landscapes were pretty impressive to say the least.

The following day we took a trip 100km further north into the desert to Talampaya. This 220 million year old canyon, with it's red 180m sandstone cliffs on either side was absolutely stunning and dwarfed everything around it. In the canyon itself were a number of rock formations with petroglyphs and pictographs etched into the rock by inhabitants a thousand years ago. We were able to spot an abundance of wildlife such as condors, llamas, giant chinchillas (yes, really) and grey foxes.

Where's Walley? Part of the Canyon at Talampaya

Valle Fertil was our first real experience of the desert. Unlike the scortching but moist heat of The Pantanal, here is was an incredibly dry, energy sapping heat. They told us it was 43 degs when we arrived. We were not even aware that the scale went that high! Siesta's  here are taken very seriously. Everything closes at 1pm until 6pm leaving the place, again, like a ghost town. Not even tumble weeds bothered to tumble. It was lifeless. That said, the evenings were pleasant and the Tira de Asado (Argentina style steak) was awesome . People dine around 11pm, full families including children just to avoid the heat. We can't blame them. Time to get used to it and adjust our body clocks for Mendoza over Christmas, wine capital of Argentina. Not quite a coincidence!