TALAMPAYA, WINE AND DINOSAURS

5 days
4 nights

Program

Day 1: City of La Rioja

Breakfast at the hotel. We will be waiting you at the airport or at the station of buses of the city of La Rioja. Our guide will welcome you and we will transfer you to the hotel selected for check-in. In the afternoon we will have a pedestrian walk in La Rioja. This city with soul of town retains the perfume of the orange blossoms from orange trees that surround the main square. We walk the streets, meet its people and will visit the most representative historical buildings, notably the Cathedral Church, the historical House of Government, tour Cultural Castro Barros and of course all their essence through a unique architectural landscape. Complete our journey back to the hotel. Overnight in La Rioja.

Day 2: Wineries in La Rioja: Riojan Torrontés

Breakfast at the hotel. This day we will make the excursion to the Riojan Costa, a winding road that surrounds green mountains and through small villages until it reaches the town of Anillaco, where you can visit traditional Winery St. Hubert. We walk through the facilities of the establishment, and our guide will teach us about artisanal wines, especially Torrontés Riojano, along with Malbec are varieties logos of Argentine viticulture. We will also learn about the process of production and processing and obviously taste the wines of our hosts. Then our tour continues by the mountains to enter the Famatina Valley. Here we will visit the impressive Chañarmuyo Estate Winery, located at the foot of the chain of the Paiman, and extending its own vineyards to 1,720 m above sea level. After the visit we will continue our way to the village of Famatina, where we stay. Night in Famatina.

Day 3: Slope of Miranda: La Riojana winery

Breakfast at the hotel. After check-out we will continue our trip to the picturesque city of Chilecito, where we will visit El Cristo del Portezuelo, the most emblematic religious site of the province, that by being located in the heart of the Sierra del Paiman gives us an unforgettable panoramic view of the course. Then we will visit the traditional winery La Riojana. This Winery, founded in 1940, is a cooperative of producers and one of the most important exporters of wine from the Argentina. We will visit its great establishment and taste the most renowned wines of la Rioja. Our second visit will be to the factory of sweets and delicacies La Rinconada, famous for producing original wine alfajores. In the afternoon, our tour continues through the mystical Cuesta de Miranda, a winding path surrounded by reddish stones and ancient cardones on the edge of the Miranda River. The road ends at the town of Villa Union, where we stay. Night in Villa Union.

Day 4: National Parks: Talampaya and Ischigualasto

Breakfast at the hotel. We will prepare to start the amazing excursion to the Ischigualasto Natural Park also known as The Moon Valley, declared in 2000 as a natural heritage for its high scientific value, since it preserves an important paleontological reserve. It is the only place where you can see fully exposed and perfectly differentiated throughout the Triassic period in the form complete and orderly it is estimated that the geological formations found here have an age of between 180 and 230 million years. The Park offers a strange landscape, where the scarcity of vegetation and the range of colours of its soils, also the random in shapes of the mountains, make it a favorite place for tourists from all over the world. In our tour guided by specialists in the Park, we admire the indescribable geoforms eroded by wind and water from million years, highlighting the "mushroom", "painted Valley" and the "submarine", among others. Complete this approximately 3-hour tour we will visit the paleontological museum, located at the base of the Park. Then we will start our excursion to the Talampaya National Park, also declared by the UNESCO Natural Heritage in the year 2000. This day we will make a tour of the prehistory of our planet, which will take us to get to know one of the sets of paleontological deposits of the Triassic period more important in the world. Surrounded by extensive white deserts, towering walls of red sandstone, valleys, ravines and whimsical stone shapes carved by nature discover at each step the vestiges of the ancient dinosaurs that inhabited these lands for thousands of years.

Talampaya National Park is a gift of nature and of our past generations that transcends our existence. Its beauty and size makes us feel small before its majesty. You will feel this great landscape, formed by the erosion of the wind and water, conveys a sense of humility that is born of the interconnections of all forms of nature and the desire to take care of this land.
You can select from a number of options of tours with Guide (required by regulations of the province of La Rioja) to perform inside the Park.

Recommended Tours:
• Talampaya Canyon (movie track with a duration of 2: 30 hs)
• Talampaya Canyon and Los Cajones (movie track with a duration of 4: 30 hs)
• Rainbow Canyon (trekking from 3: 00 hours duration)
• Lost city (trekking from 4: 00 hours duration)

After the visits to the national parks, we will move to the city of La Rioja. Night in La Rioja.

Day 5: A Natural Trip

Breakfast at the hotel. When you tell us, we will transfer from the hotel to the airport or bus station in La Rioja. Farewell. If you wish we can combine your stay in La Rioja with any of the wonderful destinations that ALTURA – Argentina Tourism & Wines has to offer in Argentina.