Finally the bus company tells us that the Paso de Jama road (around 5300m) has been cleared from snow and that we can leave for Chile. The ride is magnificent, form Salta (around 1000m) it’s all up, we pass Jujuy, Pumamarca, Salinas Grande and finally after an incredible valley, get to the Argentinian border (4000m). From there the road keeps on climbing and we get into the highest part of the Atacama desert (the driest worldwide) where the Andean cordillera is mainly made of 6000m high volcanoes. As we start descending we are at 5300m, it’s the highest point of the whole trip and the headache we all have confirms it. A short ride down, some customs formalities and we’re in Chile.

San Pedro is a town like there are in every country: small, pretty and full of tourists. It is a pleasant place to stay and the fact that we’re there during the year’s biggest celebration makes everything even better. The day of San Pedro y Pablo is when all the local and neighboring communities converge to San Pedro to venerate the town protector with a parade of dance, music and alcohol (not necessary to mention that the night was short).

Well it was a long day on the road but just fantastic. The morning was meant to be a 50 km – 2 hours and a half of driving to a small village named Iruya so you can imagine the road conditions. Well we could have been on time if we hadn’t flat the tire about 10 km after the start. Mhhh- Mhhh. We kind of agreed to keep going with the spare tire. Apparently and according to the bus driver, in this small village, somebody is repairing tires…not sure but we will see. And the guy was right, so in 45 min and for …2 Swiss francs we had a brand new old tire! The village is a tranquil place with amazing surroundings with impressive colorful mountains. It really worthed the long ride. Back to Humahuaca, we continued to the famous “Quebrada de Humahuca” and the “Sierro de siete Colores” at Pumamarca. It is a marvel. Let you enjoy the pictures.

Unfortunately the train de las Nubes (of the clouds) isn’t working anymore, so instead we rented a Fiat punto for two days to follow part of the same way. That was an excellent idea. The road was amazing (even though really bumpy for our small old car). Mountains were colorful and cactus were shining under the sun. The first stop was under the third highest bridge in the world (4700m). Well, our breath was short…we were still not acclimatized to the altitude. Then we headed to “Salinas Grande” which is a salt flat of the small lake size. Pretty amazing. They extracted the salt here making small piles to let it dry out and the next step is on your table… .

We spend the night in Humahuaca, nice and quiet cobbled village.

In the morning we leave for our long day visiting the two geologically incredible parks (UNESCO . Our first stop is at Ischigualasto, one of the only places where a complete superior triassic sediment series is visible. As well, the oldest dinosaur fossil was found here. The nickname of the site is valley of the moon, and as you can see on the pictures it is a very good nickname.

The place was formed (or better said put in this state) during the formation of the Andes around 100 mio years ago when the Nazca plate and the South american plate collided and created a subduction zone. The old triassic (250 to 205 mio years ago) lake sediments where then pushed up in a 45° angle by the subducting Nazca plate forming the nowadays visible series.

Ischigualasto is an incredible landscape marked by different colors like red, green, orange, yellow and gray coming from the different mineral composition of the sediments. Furthermore, the seasonally torrential rainsand the high winds create an extreme erosion that contributes in shaping the moon-like landscape.

After visiting the park’s museum where fossils and reconstructions of the oldest dinosaurs are shown we get on our van again and 2 hours later we’re at Talampaya.

Talampaya is geologically similar to Ischigualasto (although the series visible here are from the inferior triassic) but geomorphologically the two parks have nothing in common. In Talalmpaya the main erosion was (and is) fluvial, resulting in a huge canyon. At the beginning of the canyon we see some rock arts that show how the locals ancestors hunted and farmed guanacos (the local llama). The further we get into the canyon the more spectacular it gets, high walls of about 200m with condors flying around and some vegetation at the bottom, very very cool! As well we experience the best echo ever, from a special spot (like a big u eroded into the wall) the canyon repeats full sentences up to four times.

Around six our driver drops us off at an intersection where a bus is supposed to pass by and take us to La Rioja and then to Salta. After two hours of waiting in the local store-restaurant-ticket office-bus stop house having some cheese and wine and counting 5 cars passing by, the bus arrives and we’re off to Salta.

6968 m, the highest point of the Americas, this is the Mt. Aconcagua, 3 hours SW of Mendoza. Of course, many people come here to conquer this giant, but not many do that in June (beginning of the southern hemisphere’s winter) and neither do we. Anyway, being so close to it we decide to go for a stroll at its foot.

The tree hours bus ride to Puente del Inca are awesome. We pass form beautiful wine country trough the magnificent pre-Andes and then up to over 3000m at Puente del Inca. Here some hot sulfur springs formed an awesome natural bridge where before a huge flood in the 40s a thermal hotel was found.

From there we start walking uphill for about an hour to reach the mirador (viewpoint) del Aconcagua. The mountain is a pretty impressive view although, being already at 4000 it didn’t seem soooo impossible (in fact, in summer it’s a “pretty accessible” climb – in about 10-15 days almost anybody can do it).

At the mirador we decide to continue a bit further to get to the Aconcagua national park entrance from where the actual climb starts. On the we we spot an hare and a 8 dogs… yep regular city dogs like anywhere in South america.

On the way back to Mendoza we see couple of condors and we enjoy the pre andine scenery in the sunset light.

So, here we are, the wine-country of mendoza. All the best argentinian wines come from her and of curse, we’re goin to taste as many as possible.

We dedicated the first and second day to visiting the lovely city, watching euro08 games, eating and drinking fine and working on the usual web project.

The last day we (Sarah, Me and Vincent – a swiss guy we met at the hostel) take a bus to the nearby town Maipu of where all the vineyards are. Once we get there we try to rent a bike but we decide that it is too expensive and that hitchhiking will do.

First stop the wine museum, unfortunately we get there 10 minutes to late and we have to wait after the lunch break so we decide to go and look for some food. The only thing nearby is the “Chateaux de la Griffouniere” a small wine house that prepares awesome empanadas. We buy a dozen empanadas, 2 bottles of wine and have a mini picnic. An our late we return to the museum (late again) and we get to join an already started visit. At the end we get to taste a generous glass of very good malbec. A short walk and some hitchhiking and we get to the next wine makers where a young pretty girl (Vincent is in love) shows us around and lets us taste four different wines. At the end we decide to buy one more bottle and sit down in the vineyards to debate some post modern philosophy issues…

Another hitchhike on the back of a truck and a small bus ride and we’re back in mendoza ready for some great spagetti alla carbonara!

For the French speaking people, the opening day of the “Las Lenas” ski resort was a live remake of the movie “Les bronzés font du ski”. That day was free for everybody so 14 buses of students from Mendoza showed up for this occasion with Mam and Dad outfits from the 70’s…sssoooo funny. Not to say the lifts are going pretty well with this decade. In other words, you could have been in Europe 30 years ago. No kidding. Our friend from Steamboat, Axel, who is working there in our “summer season” told us not to take one lift that is so old he find it dangerous.

We hadn’t our ski stuff with us so we composed with what we had. I ended up skiing in……jeans!!!!!Even the people in Fluo Killy suits were laughing.