I left Mendoza, the last city, overhastly in the evening and arrived after 2,5 hours in a bus to San Juan. This time I decided to take it more relaxed...

The next day I took my time (two hours!) to wash my clothes, enjoy lunch in a delicious vegetarian restaurant (which changed my view on Argentine cuisine), walk through the city (with the typical "standing in front of closed door") and touch the two armed palm - there are only three of those all over the whole world!

Most travelers skip San Juan because they don't consider it interesting enough. It's a town in the semi-desert with about 500,000 inhabitants. You won't see any really old buildings here because a terrible earthquake destroyed everything, leaving 100,000 dead.

However, there are still a few traveler who think that there are some fascinating things to see.

For example to do a tour in the famous national park ISCHIGUALASTO. Apart from mindblowing rock formations especially the historical facts of the park are impressive.

The Ischigualasto Formation contains Late Triassic (Carnian) deposits (231.4 -225.9 million years before the present), with some of the oldest known dinosaur remains, which are the world's first with regards to quality, number and importance. It is the only place in the world where nearly all of the Triassic is represented in an undisturbed sequence of rock deposits. This allows for the study of the transition between dinosaurs and ancient mammals; research is ongoing.

The arid badlands around the formation are known as Valle de la Luna ("Valley of the Moon") due to their rugged, otherworldly appearance.

I went there with people previously unknown to me: two Israelic girls, an Islandic woman and our dutch driver, talking with each other in a mixture of English and Spanish. Not only that the national park and the Correa Difunta village fascinated me but also the 8 hours in total sitting in a car were worth the trip, delighting us with a beautiful landscape and enjoyable conversation.

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Finally on our way back to town, we came to a place which I was eager to see since I read an article (in Austria) about it a few months ago: the DIFUNTA CORREA shrine village.

This place is devoted to a woman, "Faded Correa"; Correa was her last name.

There are many different versions of her story, I will tell the one I found in the official tourist guide of the province of San Juan which differs from the one I read in my Lonely Planet guide.

The faith in Difunta Correa began with an incident which is thought to have really happened although there is not any evidence. This is the reason why there are so many varying stories about her.

The most spread throughout the country tells that in 1835 (the beginning of a civil war in Argentina) there was a woman named Deloinda Correa married to a certain Bustos. The couple lived with their little son on a farm in La Majadita, in the province of San Juan.

One day Deolinda went to visit her father in the city of San Juan while in the meantime her husband staying at the farm became arrested by unitary soldiers. They took him to the neighbored province accusing him of refusing to give his horses to the military.

Having heard this terrible news and worried about the situation, Deolinda took her little son onto her arms and left her father's place in search for her husband. However, the desert demanded all her energy and she died dishydrated in the middle of nowhere.

Her dead body was found by muleteers (people transporting goods with the help of pack animals) which had heard a crying baby. Miracously the baby was still alive, feeded by the dead women's breasts.

Moved by this miracle the muleteers buried her on the top of a nearby mountain marking the place with a cross stating her legendary name "Difunta Correa". (They found her name on the little medal of her necklace.) Then they took her son to nearby town.

Some time later other muleteers passed nearby the place Difunta Correa was buried leading a herd of cows when suddenly a storm rose causing a stampede of the animals. As they seperated from each other in search for the fled cows one of the muleteers stumbled over Difunta's grave. Desperate as he was he begged for help for the appearance of the lost cattle in exchange for building a chapel for her. Surprisingly all cows came back - the moment where faith in Difunta Correa arose.

Today there isn't just one single shrine: it's a little village consisting of dozens of shrines filled with tons of sacrificial offerings (like figures of the Difunta, wedding dresses, model cars, pictures and many weird things) and badges of stone or metal all stating different forms of saying "Thank you" to Difunta Correa. It's a pilgrim's place causing thousands upon thousands of Argentine - especially truck drivers - to visit this place. Of course souvenir shops, a service area and cafés can be found there.

To me the place felt like magic, filled with the wishes and gratitude of countless people. I was more moved then in any church before in my whole life. It is difficult to describe how much the place impressed me.

When you drive on Argentine's road you see many many mini shrines. (Unluckily it's difficult to take pictures sitting in a bus) They're devoted to about 3 different saints (Difunta Correa, San Expedito and a guy whose name I forgot) If you find bottles filled with water, it's a Difunta Correa shrine, meant to quench her thirst. If you're in trouble you can drink the water and eat the sweets sometimes left at these places but you have to replace it later on. Particularly truck drivers are strong believers in Difunta Correa and you can always see stickers, little figures and/or flags with her name on it on their vehicles.

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The last day in San Juan I only visited the Museum of Contemporary Art where I got especially fond of Cecilia Rabbi Baldi's works. The rest of the day I spent with organising, eating, skyping and typing this blog entry ;)

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Once again I have to apologise to all the friends waiting to have their e-mails answered. I am really sorry, it takes so much time to write the blog entries and doing all the activities it's really difficult for me to spend more time on the Internet to respond your questions. You may have to wait a few days or even weeks more... Sorry!!!!