0173 Nr Calingasta to Uspallata

14^th Dec 

Uspallarta - Where Brad Pitt filmed 7 Years in Tibet, apparently !!  But first we had to get here.  We woke up with the wind already starting to flap the pop top and fly sheet around, but it was pleasant enough in the sun – Except for some tiny flies they have out here in these plains – Tiny little ones that don’t seem to bit, but they get everywhere and are very annoying.  You either stand in the wind and get blown away, but no flies, or you stand in a sheltered area and get the flies !!  They were so annoying that we ended up eating breakfast inside the van !
 

After a game or two with Alberto’s great little dog (a bit fox like, and could run like the wind), and a farewell and mucho gusto with Alberto for letting us stay there over night, we set off down the road. I think the place where we stayed was some kind of weather station – We couldn’t quite make out the signs.  Anyway, the scenic gorge we had been driving down last night continued for about another 40 minutes before it started to open up into a flatter and more fertile valley, and the road edges started to have more than a few stones along the edge to stop you falling into the river below !!  While the valley opened up, we continued to have the rocky hills with amazing shapes carved by the wind and the

water on our left, and then, as we passed through a little village, we saw a sign for “Ruinas Hilario” – But the only ruins we could see looked more like an old mud brick house that wasn’t that old – So when we couldn’t find any reference to them in any book, we made a comment about Hilary  and drove on.  But only about 500 metres later there was a sign to “El Alcazar Canyon” – and we couldn’t miss two sights in a row, so turned up this narrow muddy little lane – And after a couple of 100 yards were greeted to a magnificent if small canyon, with wind carved formations.  The early morning sun was in the wrong direction for photos, so we went for a quick walk up through the canyon – A great little find.  We had had a little rain at our camping site over night, but they had obviously had more here as it was quite muddy in places.

Then it was on down the road to Borreal, which had been a possible camp site for last night, but we stopped earlier.  What a great little town – An avenue of willows coming in to town, and then a great avenue of gum trees, straight out of Aus !!  And we passed the camp site which looked very nice – Hmmm.  A few shops open and people wandering around despite it being Sunday morning.

Borreal was really the last place before Uspallarta, but it was over two hours drive.   As we came out of Borreal we started to see snowy peaks in the distance on both our right and left hand sides, and the snow looked pretty fresh to me.  One peak, Mercadario, is 6770 metres, while another, Tambillo, is 5631 metres, while the ones

to our west were only 3500 metres ! And beneath them were a couple of enormous sand flats – On the first one it looked like all the local lads were out there having a drag with each other !  On the second one there was no one, so we went for a more sedate drive all on our own !!  We then had about 50 kms of good dirt road, punctuated only by a guy on a moped with a flat tyre who was asking everyone who passed if they had a tyre repair kit ! A local car had stopped and they were all helping the guy – So when we said we had no kit they thanked us for stopping and we went on our way.

We then dropped down a long slow hill down into the little town of Uspallarta – Where we found another bike race going on !  This is apparently where some of 7 Years in Tibet was filmed, probably because of the mountain back drop.  Very scenic, and the little town was all open and seemingly full of tourist from Chile who have come over the border for the weekend.  We were in search of money – You cannot believe how hard it is to get Argentine Pesos in this place.  None of the ATM’s we have found so far work with Visa or Cirrus etc so you cannot use them, while banks are not desperately keen to exchange dollars either – And anyway, who would want to at the official bank rate of about 8 pesos to the dollar.  In some towns they have cambio (change) places where you can get about 12.5 pesos – But first you have to find a cambio man !   Havent seen one yet !  The next best is to find a shop who not only takes $ but who will also change some – None here in

Uspallarta !!  Finally, after about an hour, we found a Parrillada (barbecue) restaurant which would both take dollars and exchange some as well, and as it was lunch time, and also about to pour with rain, we went in and had a very filling and meaty meal (you just get an enormous tray of ribs, meat, chicken, sausage, of cow, chicken, goat etc – A real “mixed grill” !  Janet ate the bits that

I wouldn’t, and we had a very good meal washed down with a couple of ales – And by the time we had finished, the rain had stopped !  Perfect timing – Almost.   Unfortunately the green grocer and supermarket that we planned to visit after lunch had shut down by the time we got there !  (Argentine lunch time is from 2 pm to about 6 pm !!)  So instead we went down the road to the camp site and had an early set up and enough time to catch up on a few bits and pieces.  Unfortunately this is now our 3^rd night without wifi, so although the blog is getting written, it is not getting posted !

Tomorrow the plan is to go into the bigger city of Mendoza for a look around, and if good we might overnight there, and then the following day we will head back over the Andes to Chile and into Santiago and start to get organised (car parking and luggage wise) to catch our flight back to Aus on the 19^th. 

Photos are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0167CalangistaToUspallarta?authkey=Gv1sRgCPqo0unf3MyvDg#