The start of our trip through Argentina's Patagonia.
The first stop was at SANTA ROSA.
Santa Rosa is the capital of La Pampa, it is relatively new city as it was only founded in 1892. (So the Lonely Planet guide says)
It was a very quiet chilled out area with siesta's lasting an amazing 4hours (13.00 to 17.00).
The main shops were all situated round the attractive square, Plaza San Martin. Also here was the a strange looking catherdral, at the front of the catherdral it had 12 huge diamond shaped structures stacked randomly upon one another, we later found out that it is there to represent the 12 disciples.
We arrives in Santa Rosa early in the morning, not sure of the area, we headed to the tourist infomation office. At the office we found a really helpfull assistant, she informed us of the best places to eat, helped to book our tickets for future journeys, even went over there with us to help sort out a few language problems, . She also contacted a local hotel and reserved us a room.
The hotel looked a bit funny from the outside and the room wasnt great but for 40 Pesos (equivalant to just under 8 pounds) we had a double room with cable and ensuite. Not bad. We had been staying in hostels but cable was important with two Champions League games being played the next days.
Bad luck Chelsea HA HA HA.
Arsenal FC by far the greatest team the world has ever seen!
The now highly recommend restuarant was fantastic, so we ate there both nights. It served up the best double decker chocolate cake.
Unfortunatly we stayed in Santa Rosa a day more than first planned. our bus to Parque Nacional Lihue Calel was at 2am. We didnt wake til 8am, just a little bit to late lol. We made sure we made it the next day.
PARQUE NACIONAL LIHUE CALEL
Is also in La Pampa and is there only National Park. It is 226K South West of Santa Rosa. The road between the to is strangly almost entirely straight.
After getting up early to catch the bus we arrived at 6am and had sleep outside the service station on a couple of deck chairs til everything opened. I think its important to let you know that Lihue Calel only consists of a National Park and this service station. The closest place is 35Km away.
Luckly we were able to leave are large bags at the sevice station and head into the Nacional Park. We came across a Rangers Office about a mile in and here we obtained a map of the trails in the park. We decide on the ones recommended by the Ranger.
The first was a 14Km return walk through the park which leads to cave paintings left by indigenous hunter-gatherers around 1600 years ago. The Park was apparently home to over 40 mountain dwelling mammels, we were lucky and came across one. Which was many Guanaca's which seemed to laugh at us as we passed them.
The cave paintings werent quite what we expected as there was no caves. But there was cave style paintings which were pretty impressive(See Photos).
The trek took us all morning, so in the afternoon we headed for the second trail, which was a hike (500m Apparently) up the higest peak in the Park, Cerro de la Sociedad Cientifica. We reached the summit in just over forty minutes, the views were fantastic and you could see for miles upon miles, we could see a couple of distant salt plains.
Getting to Lihue Calel was easy compared to trying to get away. The bus company El Valle to name names, was suppose to pick us up outside the service station at 5am. After staying up all night so to save on accomodation costs the bus never stopped. We then spent the whole morning trying to thumb a lift, we were about to give up when a guy wearing a beret stopped in his Renault 19. He was able to give us a lift to the next village (Puelches) which we hoped had a bus station. What a mistake, it turned up to be next to useless. No bus station virtually the place had nothing. we then spent the next 2 hours trying to thumb a lift back to Lihue Calel, that failed so we decide to hike back. After 8km of the 35km walk, which inculded us carrying our heavy rucksacks and being bout 30 degrees. A car stopped and we got a lift back to Lihue Calel.
To cut along story short, the bus failed to stop the next day. luckly with help from the guy in the service station the bus stopped the following day and we were on our way to NEUQUEN. It was a couple of days to forget as there was nothing to do but we did have the chance of watching the Arsenal vs Liverpool game much to mine and Toms's delight. There is only one Thiery Henry.
NEUQUEN
Neuquen is the capital and is situated on the eastern edge of the Neuquen Province. The capital is largely industrial and both of our guide books has it as " A stop over for people heading south". It is alos an ideal location for day excursions to the nearby dinosaur distination of El Chocon.
We arrived at 1pm and after a long walk from the erminal de Omnibus we checked in at another Hotel. We stayed in Neuquen for one night then headed off to the Villa El Chocon, dinosaur country.
Villa El Chocon was originally built to houe the workers of the nearby dam, Exequiel Ramos Mexia. It ROARED baack into the headlines in 1993 with the discovery of the world biggest carnivorous dinosaur. The Gigantosaurus Carolinii.
We arrived at 3pm and after a couple of miles of walking we found the campsite. It was the first time that the tent had been used but after pitching it it looke pretty impressive. Once all our stuff was sorted out, we headed to Museo Municipal Ernesto Bachmann, a museum containing the replica of the dinosaurs head and apparently its real bones. As you can see from the photo's the dinosaur was huge, it was amazing to see such a beast and actually be where is was first found.
After a good nights kip, we went to see the dinosaur footprints. It was really disappointing when we eventully reached the footprints only for them to be covered up by sediment brought in by the tide. We were cheered up tho by the three stray dogs that followed us all day.
There wasnt anything else to see so we caught the bus back to Neuquen then a bus to Junin de las Andes. |
Locations Visited: Santa Rosa, Lihue Calel National Park, Puelches, Neuquen, Villa El Chocon
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