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San Juan and Ischigualasto Park, lunar land in Argentina
By Mariel Lizana, journalist.
The San Juan province in Argentina is known as Moon Valley for its mystic and impressive mountain formations. San Juan is located in the center of the country and limits with De los Andes Mountain, which shapes its particular geography with fertile valleys, snow capped hills in winter, abundant rivers in summer, places for astronomic observation and much more.
The main atraction of this zone is its amazing Ischigualasto Provincial Park, which is Patrimony of Humanity by Unesco and it is located at the north of the region. Its quechua name means "the place where ,lays the moon" and its landscape seems to be the lunar surface. This is an interesting place for scientists and visitors, because it shows the exact geography of the Triasic Period and they have found fossils of dinosaurs that lived in the Earth in that time.
It is a lonely land, where only are mountains shaped by the capricious action of the wind like the submarine and the mushroom, among others. All of them are part of the important rock formations like Tarjados and Talampaya, which are high stones, red colored, located at the west of the park. There is also the Chañares formation, where are vertebrate fossils and the Ischichuca formation, created with black and white sand, where have been found remains of old plants.
The Ischigualasto formation is part of an important group of stones purple and grey and Los Colorados formation, has red stones which contained the newest fossils of the park.
Although the Ischigualasto Park is a scientific tour, there are guided excursions in vehicles and bikes, to discover the most important places of this amazing zone. There is also a tourist project for this reserve, to show this incredible piece of living history.
But San Juan is not just paleontology, there are also great valleys. In its lands there are plantations of olives, fruits and vegetables, but specially vineyards, that are another tourist attraction of the region.
It is also a place for mountaineering and has excellent summits like Mercedario Hill, with 6770 meters of height. Here is another incredible landscape of San Juan, the mountain village, Barreal and its main atractive: the Pampa del Leoncito.
The Leoncito National Reserve has 76 thousand hectares of surface and an amazing ground with shinning white color with multiple cracks like perfect pentagons. Here the visitors can practice the funny sport of "carrovelismo", consisting in a two passengers vehicle, with three wheels and a sail mast that is impulsed by the speed of the wind, even reaching 90 kilometers per hour.
In El Leoncito Reserve there are also two important observatories, El Leoncito and Carlos Cesco, where the visitors can discover the stars. In interesting tours, an astronomer will explain the constellations in the sky, among the complete darkness and silence of the mountain, creating an unforgettable picture.
San Juan counts with archeological places like Los Morrillos, where the visitors can discover the remains of the populations that lived in this zone at 8 thousand years ago, such as cave paintings and 17 mummies buried. In the excursions there is also the presence of animals of the local fauna like lizards, falcons, eagles and rodents.
For staying at the height of the mountain, San Juan also counts with thermal waters, such as the swimming pools in Agua Negra, which are very popular by their curative powers to heal diseases like skin and bones problems and respiratory affections.
Another incredible attraction is the Dique de Ullum, which is an artificial dam used for hydroelectric purposes which became a tourist attraction. Here the visitors can practice nautical sports and recreation activities like bike riding. There are a 5 stars hotel and many camping sectors at the beaches. Other interesting sports are rafting, fishing, jet ski and navigation.
Take a trip to San Juan and discover the beauty of a land full of mysticism and adventure.
