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.

After the awesome days at el Chalten we decide to move a bit back north. Patagonia in winter is great but unfortunately in low (if not death) season and a lot of services are not available anymore. Our plan was to hit north on the Ruta 40 which winds trough the Andes up all the way to Bariloche. Unfortunately, the last company to cut down this service did it last week… everybody tells us to go back to Rio Gallego and from there to Bariloche… no way! So we look for alternatives and find a small company that runs a minibus across the country and not in a v shape down to the bottom of Patagonia and then up again… not bad, saves 8hours and 700 Km… Only thing they run the service 3 times a week… in summer :/ well we’re lucky, in winter it’s once a week and right now.
Beside the driver realizing that he forgot his license after 40 min and having to go back to get it, all goes smoothly… we get on the Atlantic coast by 10 right when Federer is playing at Roland Garros. We watch the game and 2 hours later are off to Saramiento, well almost. On the way we have a stop from 18 to 20.30 in Caleta Olivia where we plan to have dinner… Game: try to find an open restaurant before 8…
Finally at 00.30 we get to Saramiento… well not the paradise but we find an “hotel” (that’s what they claim to be) and fall asleep.
We stopped here to visit a petrified forest nearby. So after looking for an hour to find a coffee we hire a taxi to take us there. On the way we see a local kind of ostrich and once we get there we are really positively surprised, the town kind of turned us down but the landscape here is great. Weird colors, mountains made of sand and ashes, really slippery silt, a fox and petrified stems make it for a great little trip. The highlight are the petrified stems (buried in marine sediments 65mio years ago when the region was a flourishing lagoon full of dinosaurs) and now getting to the surface thanks to the action of water and wind erosion.
We spend the afternoon in a “cafe” writing blog entries and at 00.30 we’ll take of ti El Bolson near Bariloche.

One of the only stable (not getting smaller) glaciers in the world is the Perito Moreno glacier, that happens to be just an hour from where we lodge… (maybe that’s why we’re there…)
The other really cool thing about this glacier is that it ends in a lake and it continuously calves (blocks of ice breaks from the glacier into the water – it is how icebergs are born).
We get there really early (at 10.00 and it’s barely day) and so we are the first “tourists” (in “” bacause the real tourists get there by noon with guides etc…
The morning hours are really cool, I mean cold! And cool! Everything is quite and we can ear the ice crack and twist under it’s own weight and from time to time a big block falls into the lake, a real spectacle! (my geographer heart is going nuts )