La Payunia is a national reserve about 190 km south of Malargue. It has only opened up to the public in the last ten years, partly because of its inaccessibility issues. The only allowed way to visit the park is to either take a tour or hire a guide, which we did via Karen Travel who own the apartments we are staying in. According to the guide books, it is the world's most concentrated area of volcanic cones, numbering over 800. (We have previous visited el Valle de los Volcanes at Andagua, Peru and this had over 100, but virtually all cinder cones.)
We left at 8.30 with Miguel our guide. We were told he didn't speak English and he didn't but he spoke Spanish so clearly and slowly the going was easy.
Heading south we took the Ruta 40 for a couple of hours. The carriageway is in a poor condition, but not as bad as the guidebooks say and is perfectly passible. As with other bits of unpaved major road, there was evidence that a new road was being constructed.
Eventually we came to a bridge over a narrow gorge where the Rio Grande has carved itself a path through the basalt.
Soon after we turned off into the countryside along narrower roads which mainly served the oil companies that are based here. Ever so often one could spot an oil derrick with its "nodding donkey" on the horizon. Here the nickname is "guanacos" after the camelid that inhabits the region. The roads were unmarked and a potential labyrinth, which the guidebooks warn you against. There is obviously some friction here as there were signs extolling the virtue of oil exploration and others protesting that YPF (the Patagonian energy company) had usurped local rights. There have also been some incidents, including this explosion in 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp4TPJc gAIA
Occasionally a big tanker or oil company SUV might come the other way but generally the roads were quite quiet. For some reason, Joan felt compelled to tell Miguel that the oldest oil well in the world was at Calow, near Bolsover.
In the distance one could see the two major volcanoes here in the park, Payun Matru and Payun Liso. Payun Matru is a shield volcano with many auxiliary comes on its slope, whilst Payun Liso is a Strombolian type volcano, like Fuji, El Misti and Villarica.
Down in the valley one could see the black silhouette of the much smaller cinder cone of Volcan Santa Maria.
Turning off the oil company roads on to the tourist circuit the roads pretty much deteriorated as we drove up some rocky, narrow tracks. We were quite comfortable in our HiLux and couldn't believe minibuses got up there too but the fact that a couple were already there showed they did.
Here the landscape changed to what is called the black pampa. The ground was either black or red pumice and in the distance we could see the Volcan Murado, a red cone.
Volcanic bombs were everywhere, some very large. Joan recalled an account of the famous eruption of Vesuvius on Pompeii, where Pliny writes of the death of his uncle. In order to protect themselves from the falling pumice they put pillows on their heads. With the size of some of these bombs, you would need something a little more substantial!
Further on we met guanaco crossing the black landscape. And further still, a Citroen Berlingo whose tyre had been punctured by the rocky terrain.
Finally at the foot of Payun Liso, under the shadow of a huge lava flow, was the lunch spot where all the tour buses congregated. In all there we a couple of minibuses, three more 4X4s and the unfortunate Berlingo.
As some of the roads are very narrow it seems all the trips take the same timeslot so they can turn round at the same time and not meet oncoming traffic. We speculated that there may be two motivations for not allowing free access to the park. Firstly to preserve the environment, maintain traffic flows and stopping folk taking 4X4s everywhere. Secondly, it provides employment for local tour companies and guides. (A bit of signage would destroy the needs for a guide.)
Turning back we turned off to drive across the black pampa in the direction of Volcan Morudo, the red volcano. It was quite unearthly driving through the ash and slowly climbing upwards. The road was like a roller coaster and it felt like an episode of Top Gear (again!).
Just short of the summit we stopped and walked along the side of the volcano to suddenly come across its gaping crater with lava spilling down in to the valley below. We doubt the pictures do the crater any justice. A "wow" moment.
Finally we headed back through the park on minor roads. These were definitely not on the map!
We asked Miguel where the people who work here live as there are no houses and he said Malargue, so a 2 and a half hour commute on rocky roads each way, six days a week.
Miguel kept asking us about other volcanoes we had visited, and Joan tried to tell him about Mt Mihara on Izu Oshima where people commit suicide by throwing themselves in to the crater. She also explained that it was the birthplace of Godzilla. Not sure if some of that was lost in translation.
It was a long day, about ten hours driving on difficult roads. Finally we passed Volcan Malacara which meant we were only 30 km from home. "Muy cerca" said Miguel. Our answer, "In Argentina, si, pero in Inglaterra, muy lejos!"
Back at home we were frankly shattered. All praise to Kevin though for such a fine drive.