Author: marionvermazen

Today we visited two National Parks. The first which is about 20 miles south of Villa Unión is Talampaya National Park. Even though we had done research ahead of time we were surprised to learn that we would have to take a guided bus tour to enter the park, it would cost us $70 each and the next tour wasn’t until midafternoon. We decided to pass. At the park headquarters we were able to do a short nature walk and we saw two mara’s.

This area has a lot of dinosaur fossils. Duke tried to catch one of the dinosaurs.

We drove farther south to another park entrance. To enter there and do the tour would have cast us $50 each. So again we did the nature trail. We saw a guanaco.

Next we went to Ischigualasto National Park. Since we didn’t want to do the guided 40 mile loop drive we visited the Dr. William Sill museum at the headquarters.

From the park we drove west to San Juan de Jachál, where we will spend Thursday and Friday nights.

We drove a curvy scenic road and then through lots of flat desert to get to San Juan.

This morning we woke up to beautiful clear skies. Our breakfast was delivered to our cabana.

We got a relatively early start. Although Villa Union where we are tonight is directly west of La Rioja we had to go south around the mountains. Our first destination was Chilecita.

Chilecito is the beginning of a 35 km/ 22 mile long cable car that was built to carry ore from the Mejcana mine. The mine was created at 4,600 meters / 15,091 ft near the top of the nearby mountains. The cable car brought the ore from the mine down to Chilecito at an elevation of 1,075 meters / 3,526 ft. We visited the beginning of the cable tour and were given a fantastic tour of the museum. This engineering feat was completed in about 1908!

After visiting the first two stations of the cable car (There were a total of 9 stations.) we went to a nearby spot where a river full of sulfur sediment meets a clear river coming from another part of the mountains. It called the Union of the Rivers ( Unión de Los Rios).

Tonight we are staying in Villa Unión. We have a little Cabaña.

For dinner we went to Restaurante Don Edgardo.

We drove about 300 miles northwest today to the town of La Rioja. it took us about six hours. The beginning of the drive was through farming country but eventually that changed to desert.

Along the way did get stopped by the police because we didn’t have our headlights on. There is a bit of a story which I will tell after we leave Argentina. Everything turned out fine.

In La Rioja we are staying at Casa Adela – Cabanas Resort. We have one Cabana with two bedrooms. It is perfect.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Zoita just around the corner from where we are staying. They eat dinner very late in Argentina. The restaurant didn’t even open until nine.

Our goal today was to explore a bit of Córdoba, the second most populous city in Argentina. We started the day in the central square, Plaza San Martin. The Cathedrol and original government building are on the square. José San Martin was an Argentine general who led the Argentinians to gain their freedom from Spain.

From Plaza San Martin we walked to Parque Sarmiento. We explored a bit then took a break for coffee.

Ordering of a restaurant menu in a new area is always a bit of a challenge.

Today we drove 250 miles north and west across countryside that looks a lot like the Great Plains of the United States. We made one stop at a rest stop to stretch but other than that we drove straight through. It took us about 4 hours.

Córdoba is the second largest city in Argentina. When we got here we went grocery shopping then played cards.

In Córdoba we had dinner at an excellent restaurant called

Standard 69.