Valley of the Moon to Chilecito (click here for photos)
20.6.09
Hola,
As I write this we have retreated to our room at La Rustica in Chilecito, taking advantage of the quieter siesta hours when the town goes to sleep.
Siesta hours are generally between 12:30pm and 4pm,5pm or 6pm, or whatever hours you feel like. 12-1pm marks the beginning of siesta and peak hour where everyone scurries around like busy bees working for their queen before the shops close and the town effectively goes to sleep. Then suddenly....everyone disappears. Where they go, is yet to be known.
We have now crossed nearly three provinces in Argentina – Mendoza, San Juan and now in La Rioja. In the few days we expect to be in province Catamarca, as we make our way along Ruta Cuarenta (route 40) towards Belen, and Cafayate.
La Rioja has been for us one of the most remarkable provinces yet for scenery. It is unique and very red.
It was almost a week ago now where we waved our farewells to Mario and Marisa at Hotel Rustico in Villa San Agustin and headed north some 76km to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), Ischigualasto Parque Provincial. UNESCO declared this area ‘Patrimony of Humanity’, in 2000 because it is the only area in the world where you can find a complete sequence of continental sediments from the Triassic Age. The fossils from there have helped trace the origin of the dinosaurs. We saw real dinosaur fossils in the museum and some very cool geographic forms.
Throughout the park there are five station stop over a 40 kilometre loop. Stuart and I were fortunate enough to obtain lift around the course with an Argentinan couple, Gustavo and Diana, from Santa Fe near Buenos Aires. Our guide spoke Spanish so were unable to soak up a great deal of know of its history but we did see some very interesting places and we did buy a Spanish/Spanglish/English description of the area. Gustavo and Diana passed on the guides jokes, for example that I (Anita) needn’t worry about the puma’s as they are only interested in Mother In Law’s.... ;^)
Valle de la Luna the ‘Painted Valley,’ stop 3, got its name because it looks like a moons surface. Now I have never been to the moon, but if you could imagine imagine taking away gravity and stumbling across the space in the middle of the desert during the full moon, where the light would glisten on the calcified clay enriched surfaces you would swear that you were on the moon. It was pretty cool.
This ‘Painted Valley’ runs down to Talampaya National Park which was our next destination for the following day.
We rose before the sun at 7:30am and with frozen fingers and toes packed up our gear and headed to the cafeteria for hearty omelette breakfast before heading off to Talampaya.
The morning of course was greeted with the usual head wind, this time from the south-east, the same direction of our first 17 chilly kilometers. We then proceeded to head north with a slow steady climb and we blessed with a mild tail wind (blessed because it was not a headwind). It was so nice -we could talk to each other without having to scream and when you slowed down to about 11km/hr there was complete silence as we rolled with the same speed as the breeze. No cars, no wind, full sunlight and lots and lots of space.
We were enjoying it so much that we hadn’t realized we ascended an easy 150metres until we reached the top and met a remarkable 400m super smooth descend through the most beautiful and unique surroundings yet. The road was our bike path. The earth changed from a browny/orange to a rich deep burnt red with layers of white sandstone. A rugged and dramatic cliff line was the threshold between the two changing landscapes...it was kind of like crossing a fault line.
In contrast, we crossed the other end of the ‘painted valley’ which looked like gurgling porridge in a papier-mache form, lacquered with layers of resin. It was barren and without any life as the clays prevents any plants from germinating.
We passed our first sightings of wild guanacos, condors were flying above and heard of cattle were grazing in an unexpected waterhole. The landscape began to flatten out but the rich red soils and dark emerald green flora remained with us to Talampaya.
We camped at the entrance of Talampaya National Park and had an early evening in the tent before the temperature dropped dramatically.
To see Talampaya National Park properly and all five station destination of the park it is mandatory to take the tour bus, which cost a painful $220 pesos for us both. Nevertheless, with a guide that could also speak English (which I more or less begged for) it was priceless and the trip was much more of a safari in a vehicle than a tour bus.
We were taken to petroglyphs with some 120m high red sandstone verticals walls surrounding us. We went through massive canyons, passed numerous wildlife, botanical gardens and all within a very, very colourful environment. My favourite was the Conjones Canyon for its scale and colours. It was a narrow gorge, the deep red walls were very rich and the pampas grass abundant. It was pretty and sculptural.
The following morning, our cooktop needed attention so whilst Stuart as trying to fix it, I packed up the gear and got ready to load the bikes for the next 60km. It was whilst enjoying our third bowl of porridge with sultanas and brown sugar that the Zonda (hot, strong northerly wind - from the north of course) hit filling our bowls with all the dirt you could crunch on.
It was amazing, we were one minute enjoying the serenity, the red outback with the snow capped Andes in the far distant and then wham!....eat that! The temperature rose to at least 28-30 degrees census, the wind must have being 60-70 km/hr (head wind) and all the moisture in our bodies immediately evaporated. Our trusty Marmot tent was holding ground and the panniers helped to further secure it down.
It was impossible to go anywhere, so we escaped to the cafeteria to slip tea and spread out our feed of empanadas over several hours to hold our much prized table. Suprisingly, at 1:30pm the wind began to drop enough to make the next 30km to Paganchillo, where we would rest the night before heading towards the mountains.
In Paganchillo, I found love in form of food. Humitas! Humitas are a kind of corn mashed mush, salted, wrapped and boiled (or steamed) inside a parcel of corn husk. I’m looking forward to more of these as we head north towards JuJuly. After a goods nights rest, with a pesty mosquito (we’re now in dengue fever area) and after a hot shower to pick the sand from our ears we left for Los Tambillos.
The first 21km of our ride from Paganchillo to Los Tambillos, is one section of ride I would rather forget. Remember the road we took outside Quintero in Chile, where the road turned into beach and how we vowed to no longer take short cuts along the dirt?
Well, no lessen was learnt and we fell for a 21km shortcut dirt road alternative to the 50km, smooth flat bitumen path through Villa Union. The landscape was dire, the tyres were like pizza cutters in the sand, the weather was overcast. I was frozen to the bone and we were lucky to reach a demoralising10km/hr on the flats.
We were, or at least I was, exhausted at the end of the 21km and was pleased to finish the day in a hostel in the mountains after a further 17km. Los Tambillos was the last town before the final 800m climb over the pass.
To Stuarts frustration, he had two flats over the course of the night (the second most probably from a pinch flat). However our delayed start in the morning brought good fate. Whilst repairing the bikes, a sole touring cyclist from Buenos Aires came by to top up his water supply. Luis had been camping nearby the hostel as well over night.
We rode the full day with Luis. It was nice, he spoke a little English and Stuart loved having a talking dictionary. I could heard the words repeatively echoo-ing in the valley ‘Come se dice”(spoke)’ en Espanol? (How do I say ‘(bicycle) spoke’ in spanish?’ etc etc. Stuart was talking his head off throughout the climb and I wondered if poor Luis was just wishing he hadn’t accompanied us on this climb. ;^) as he was repetitively questioned the ABC’s of bike parts in spanish.’ Thanks Luis!
After reaching the pass we were quite surprise to be coasting down a beautiful gorge/valley with a 25+km, 1100mm descend into Nongasta. It was magical. The photos speak for themselves.
We really enjoyed spending our day with Luis and getting to know him a little. Luis’s goal is to visit all the national parks in Argentina over the next 11 months, some of which has meant that he has had to cross numerous freezing waist deep river crossing to get to the parks. He has completed a dozen or so cycle tours around Argentina in the past 10 years and we left him yesterday thinking he was a humble legend with a true passion for touring.
We plan to continue heading north to Cafayate and Salta tomorrow.
Love Anita (and Stuart)
Posted byStuart Kane at 4:43 PM
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Queridos Anita y Stuart: Les escribimos en español para que lo practiquen. Nos alegramos de que estén bien. Y recordábamos que hoy es el cumpleaños de Anita. Vimos las fotos del cruce de Villa Unión a Chilecito por cuesta de Miranda,un lugar bellísimo. Y muy linda la foto en la que estamos con Stuart. Los seguiremos en este blog y le deseamos muy buen viaje.
Ahora les decimos algo en inglés:
Anita, in Salta, be carefull with the pumas!!!...No!!!...is only a job!...
And happy birthday!.
Un abrazo afectuoso.
Diana y Gustavo.
Rosario - Argentina.