Mon 22.3.2010 by Liz
After my indulgent soaking in the termas of Pismanta, it was time to move onto the Mendoza province. We headed to Uspallata, a the little mountain valley town. The first leg of the trip was a scenic route; winding roads through and over hills, snow capped mountains in the distance (which is weird to see when you are sweating) and a valley of intersecting many rivers. Seeing the river from above, you could see the vibrant jade green colour of the water made by the sediment from the surrounding hills. As the valley opened up, the number of rivers that poured into it grew in number, all entwining together in a mesh of streams on the valley floor. We assumed after the snow melts these water networks would fill to become one single large flow.
After stopping briefly and getting petrol in Barreal, we started our 90km stretch to Uspallata, 60km of which, according to our map, was gravel. Well, maps aren't always accurate, are they? The gravel road started sooner than anticipated. After driving along the road for a while, we found out that this road WAS in fact paved, once upon a time. You could see the pot hole reminisce of the road in the centre while two lanes on either side were graded gravel. Funnily enough, driving on the gravel side road was a smoother ride than the "paved" one, so we opted to stick to the gravel lane to the right of the destroyed bitumen.
We arrived in Uspallata around mid-afternoon and scouted around for places to stay, eventually deciding on the cabañas I found out about on the internet. As a nice bonus it had Wifi internet, but the main draw card for us was the clean pool. Some other pools we saw in the town had black water... no kidding, black! Gross... We checked in for our two nights and chilled by the pool in deck chairs. Being as it was already passed 5pm, I decided not to plunge in the frigid "oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-it's-still-in-liquid-form" pool water but Jack went for a quick icy dip.
The next day we went rafting! :D There were only four of us on the rafting tour that day, so we (myself and the other two) felt a little intimidated, seeing as Jack was the only one on our "crew" that had done rafting before (not counting the guide of course). Our guide only spoke Spanish but thankfully for us the Canadian girl on our trip had very good Spanish skills, so that if we - her husband, Jack and I - couldn't understand something during the safety training, she translated for us.
The river Mendoza was at its low season, being as there were no snow melts to fill it to capacity. This was good for us first timers, not crazy enough to really freak us out but good enough for a fun ride. And boy, the rivers move fast here compared to Australia, which of course is due to the Andes and its friend, gravity, propelling them along. Rafting was fun, but cold. Thank goodness we were given wind-proof plastic type pants and coats or I would have returned from the trip as a solid ice cube. I was struggling to keep my hands clasped on my ore... but Jack would say I was exaggerating.
After rafting we refuelled with some empanadas and drove about 70km to see La Punta del Inca, a natural rock formation bridge with some Inca ruins. Due to dangerous conditions, the bridge and the ruins were closed for restoration, so we had to admire it from afar. And due to the cold and strong winds blowing that day, I admired it quickly and wanted to return to the car. We downed a quick hot chocolate at a local beverage stand (made by melting block chocolate in hot water and milk) and we made drive back to Uspallata.
After leaving Uspallata, we headed towards Mendoza city to find some camping near by; we intended to get a place in Mendoza the next day due to work and internet needs. From our little drive around Mendoza we found it reminded us more of Barcelona than any other Argentine city we've seen so far, but with the day being so nice and sunny how could we spend it in the city? So our visit to Mendoza was cut short as we opted to return the 97km back to Uspallata and stay at the cabanas once more as it had everything we wanted: internet, pool, sun and a nice country, relaxing atmosphere - And this time we both braved the icy water and had a nice relaxing day by the pool.
We left the hilly surrounds of Argentina's Mendoza province to head to the San Luis province. We passed through Mendoza city again and after getting momentarily lost in the northern outskirt area, we made our way north-east. We headed through a very flat and desert type landscape which had the temperature to match. Our aim: to head to Villa de Merlo, a town in the Valle de Conlara, a valley between two mountain ranges.
Villa de Merlo was very much a tourist oriented town, with an abundance of all types of accommodation imaginable, souvenir shops and many obvious tourists. The town also seemed to us that this was also a rich retiree town, gathering from the types of houses and the number of old caucasian people wandering the streets in typical "I-want-to-wear-these-that-high" shorts that only retirees can pull off.
It was easy enough to find a campground (especially after the lady at information drew them all on a map) and decided on one just out of Villa de Merlo in a satelite town called Cerro de Oro. It had a nice set up with trees and picnic tables and a tri-pool area, under which was a games room - where I happily defeated Jack at table tennis.
Villa de Merlo also offered us twisty turny drive up the mountain to a look out called Mirador de los condores (Lookout of the condores). After a quick look around, to my pleaser, we happily the chilling winds to return to the balmy 35 degrees we left below. From here we headed to the Cordoba province.
After winding our way over the moutian range the bordered San Luis and Cordoba provinces (on which we were driving through cloud most of the way) we were on our planned routed toward a large salt lake. We stopped over for a night near Bialet Masse (camped right beside a small lake) and after stocking up on supplies at the local bakery, we headed east toward Mar Chiquita (little sea). Jack decided on the destination Playa Grande (meaning Big Beach).
When we arrived a Playa Grande (which was down a pretty crappy dirt road so Lizzie = fret fret fret for the fear of getting stuck with our pissy little car) it was obvious the billboard pointing the way was Photo-shopped. The campground looked a little run down, like whoever was looking after it was no longer doing so. The toilet was so run down and wrong, I wished I hadn't gone to investigate it and left it a mystery.
The "beach" (which wasn't much of it) was filled with junk from both from other campers in the past and run down ruins of dwellings that may have stood 20 or so years ago. Upon investigating the waters, Jack concluded that it was just too murky to go for a swim as there was no way of seeing below you and not knowing the area we didn't want to venture to far into the water. But during our ankle deep dip we found the water very warm for a natural body of water this size. It would have been nice to swim in, oh well.
Just off the path toward the shore was a sort of ‘shower' set up on the rocks. It consisted of pipes constructed into a T shape with water spurting down out of either ends of the T. And somehow, it was fresh water coming out. Yey!... Showers for us stinky campers tonight! Due to the constant water flow however, the rock platform beneath them were quite slippery, so it was quite a precarious experience having a shower.
We chilled out by the tent after dinner for a while hoping for a bit of star gazing, but again, the clouds came over. Grr... every time I plan to chill and look at the stars, clouds! So off to bed we went. During the night I woke a little to turn over and the tent was shaking quite violently from the wind and then I noticed a flash. "Hmm... that looks kind of like lightening." Then, flash again. I quickly sat up and squinted through the little bit of mesh our English "Glastonbury Festival" tent had and saw some flashing in some clouds. Crap, a storm, I knew it! And down the crappy road... yey. I hate being right sometimes.
After watching the lightening for a bit, we concluded that if the storm did hit, it would be ferocious! So, for precautionary reasons we packed up and set up the air mattress in the car, after folding all the seats down to create of mostly flat surface. Well, shortly after that the wind picked up even more than before and the rain came down. Lizzie's "over exaggerated panic" actually was useful... who would have thought a survival instinct would come in handy. (ah, that was sarcasm people, in case you didn't catch it)
We watched the storm from the safety and comfort... well, relative comfort, of the car. The lightening was very violent and spectacular and we were up watching it for many hours with Jack trying to capture some on the camera. There was so much lightning that the whole area was lit up in an eery light and was only momentarily dark on occasion. At times, the lightning was striking from directly above us and it was too bright to look out of the car windows! Fortunately we weren't hit by extremely heavy rain again but there was real danger of being electrocuted!
The rain still fell into the morning but by the time we were up and about to get going, the rain had well and truly stopped. Hopefully that was enough time to dry out the roads a bit... so I hoped. We did get momentarily stuck in the muddy puddle at the entrance of the camp area (Lizzie = fret fret fret fret fret fret!) but Jack managed to manouver the car onto a bit of grass so the tyres caught grip. (Lizzie = phew... fret.) The road after got a bit worse in place, with a great big mud patch obviously turned over by a tractor from a near by farm. (Lizzie = FRET FRET FRET FRET FRET FRET!!!!)
We finally reached the main (paved) road with the skill of Jack's driving. I do commend Jack for his excellent driving skills. He has done a great job on negotiating those crappy dirt roads and getting us out of them. I just hope we don't have to go down any more... please.
8500km from the start of our Argentine road trip that is! For our last night on the road before we head back to Buenos Aires, we aimed for the town of San Pedro by the Parana River. As both our accommodation guides said they had cabins and camping there, we figured we'd find somewhere to stay there easily.
As we drove, the remnants of the rains from the previous night's storm started to rain upon us. We hit pockets of heavy rains as we drove and decided most likely a cabaña would be tonight's accommodation rather than the tent. As we drove through the towns we noticed that the heavy rains must have hit them too. Some streets were filled with water to the point that the local authorities had to tape up barriers of the street entrances. In one of these flooded areas we stopped to take a photo of one of the streets with children playing in it. After the initial confusion of a gringo doing something weird out of his car, the kids approaching the flooded street realised Jack had a camera and immediately ran for the river street and stuck poses. Funny kids.
Our route took us on freeways that snaked and wound through the city of Rosario. In the maze of freeway on-ramps and crossovers we missed our exit and ended up making a big loop Rosario again. Finally, on the right track - or should I say the right freeway - we were on our way south. We took our exit to San Pedro and headed into the town on a long concrete road. Yes, many town roads here are concrete and very weird to drive on. It sounds like you are on a never ending bridge or you should look more like a train. We drove through the main street down to the river foreshore to where most of the camping and cabañas were. Seeing as we left the rain long behind we thought we might try our luck at finding a campsite. Well, we found it, right on the river shore... well, what should have been the river shore but now turned into the river itself. The campgrounds were totally underwater, with trees and picnic tables sticking out form the flat water surface. Cabañas it is!
After a breakfast of medialunas (mini croissants... gotta love 'em) and coffee (in tea bag form... interesting) we hit the road for Buenos Aires once again, getting into the city and our old stomping ground around lunchtime.
So after going through 2 wheels, 3 hub-caps and about 8500kms, our road trip came to an end and we returned the car. Of course, our security deposit didn't come back to us in its full amount but thank you travel insurance. And then we were off to get our bags from the hotel and then to Uruguay!
We caught the 1 hour Buquebus boat across the Rio de Plata to Colonia in Uruguay then boarded a bus to take us to the capital city of Montevideo, a 2 hour ride away. A quick taxi ride from the bus terminal and we were at our apartment building that would be home for the next 6 weeks. As we waited for Eduardo, the building manager, to arrive and let us in, we grabbed a bite to eat at the café downstairs to fill our starving bellies.
Well, we did it! We survived our first road trip in South America, saw the many different landscapes from desert to the Andes and now are in Uruguay. What an adventure in South America so far, with only more to come, I'm sure of it.
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