MOON VALLEY / TALAMPAYA

4 days
3 nights

Program

Day1: City of San Juan

We will be waiting at the airport or bus station in the town of San Juan. Our guide will welcome you and transfer you to your hotel for check-in. In the afternoon, we will make a view of the most important highlights of the city. During the tour we will visit the 25 de Mayo square where we can appreciate the lush vegetation of San Juan, achieved through artificial irrigation system of canals running through the city underground. Also the Metropolitan Cathedral, a modern building with unique architectural design where rests thousands of deaths of earthquake in the 1944. Then the tour continues for a very important place in the history of Argentina, the Domingo F. Sarmiento Birthplace and Museum, exemplary hero that fight with his work and established basic guidelines for the country's education system. Leaving the city we travel to Valle del Zonda, to visit the cellars of champagne. These are caves dug by Eastern European immigrants in the mountain rock, now used as cellars for the ideal temperature in the production of champagne. We will have a tasting of products and then continue to the Reservoir Ullum, to enjoy the stunning contrast between clay formations and the water mirror. After the tour we return to the hotel. Night in San Juan.

Day 2: Ischigualasto Natural Park (Moon Valley)

Breakfast at the hotel. We will prepare to start the amazing excursion to the Ischigualasto Natural Park also known as Moon Valley, declared in 2000 as a natural heritage for its high scientific value, since it preserves an important palaeontological 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. In the afternoon we return to the hotel. Night in Villa Union.

Day 3: Talampaya National Park

Breakfast at the hotel. We will check-out to then 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)

In the area of the Talampaya Canyon are the only tourist complex of the Talampaya National Park services (bathrooms, restaurant, regional and merchandising, camping, sale of excursions, etc) that provides comfort and information to visitors, serving also as a starting point for excursions.

Completed the tour and the visit, return to the city of Villa Union to collect our things in the hotel and move to the city of San Juan. Night at hotel in San Juan.

Day 4: Boutiques Wineries in San Juan

Breakfast at the hotel. In the morning we pick you up to start a visit to two emblematic wineries of the wine roads of San Juan, area where the emblem is the syrah varietal. We will visit the facilities of the first winery and our guide will teach us about the production of different types of grapes, systems Vine Training, development processes and of course taste the goodness of its wines.

The second visit will be a boutique winery, so called because they produce small amounts of wine bottles but exclusive and high-end. Here we will share a talk on tasting techniques and taste the wines of our hosts. After the visit we return to the hotel. When you tell us, we will transfer from the hotel to the airport or bus station in San Juan. Farewell.

If you wish we can combine your stay in San Juan with any of the wonderful destinations that ALTURA – Argentina Tourism & Wines has to offer in Argentina.