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national parks
Written by sophie et jeremy   
Monday, 04 December 2017

The national parks come one after another but don’t look alike. Some of them, in addition to the entrance fee, enforce a mandatory guide and/or tour bus. As we have to make choices, we head to the others...

around cafayate around cafayate

Ischigualasto (UNESCO…) is famous for its dinosaur fossils. We preferred its geological formations, 250 million years old, especially the Valle de la Luna where the different mineral layers settled in multicolored stratum: red, green, black and white. Gorgeous! We have also seen a field of round stones, fossilized plants dating from Triassic, and rocks looking like mushrooms, submarines and turtles, all of that surrounded by brick red cliffs.

Ischigualasto 1 Ischigualasto 1 Ischigualasto 2 Ischigualasto 2

Ischigualasto 4 Ischigualasto 4 Ischigualasto 6 Ischigualasto 6

Ischigualasto 3 Ischigualasto 3 Ischigualasto 5 Ischigualasto 5

Ischigualasto 7 Ischigualasto 7

After all that, we took a little rest in our hammocks in El Leoncito park, where we vainly search for a puma. For the first time we had a look at the snow-capped Andean cordillera, reaching 6000m high in the area.

snow capped cordilera snow capped cordilera some colors mountain near leoncito some colors mountain near leoncito

After a quick stop in Mendoza, capital of the Argentinian wine, where we stocked up food, and ate a delicious steak, with good wine and dessert, we leave the road 40 to drive through the Canyon Atuel. The landscape is steep-sided and superb, we drive along many small clear water lakes. We stop on the shores of Nihuel lake and use for the first time our inflatable kayak. We struggle one hour to fill it correctly, forget the centerboard, and here we go. We mostly got wet and paddled round, but next time we’ll do it better...

Atuel Atuel kayak atuel kayak atuel

sunset atuel sunset atuel

Next stopover is la Payunia volcanic park, which we reach after 70km of broken and extremely uncomfortable road. But it was worth it, the place is magical: we are surrounded by volcanic cones, old lava flows, all of that covered by a thick layer of black volcanic ashes walked by wild vicunas... It’s really pretty and there’s no one around to bother us.

Payunia 1 Payunia 1 Payunia 2 Payunia 2

Payunia 3 Payunia 3 Payunia 4 Payunia 4

The road 40, stretches up again ahead of us, to the south and the lakes district.