We arrived at the bus station in San Juan pretty late at night and were picked up by a really lovely, chatty taxi driver. We were hoping to check into the HI hostel, but when we arrived it was full and we had to make do with another hostel nearby. The place itself was fine, having a nice lounge area, clean kitchen and bathrooms, but our door room STANK of stale smoke, which no amount of ventilating seemed to be able to banish! Luckily, we were only planning to spend a few nights there, just long enough to visit the nearby National Parks of Ischigualasto and Talampaya.

We were up pretty early the next morning and spent the day in search of a tour and pottering around the city. There wasn't much to see by way of tourist sites, despite San Juan being much bigger than either of us had anticipated, but we managed squeeze in a few stops in the sunshine of the main and surrounding plazas, the cathedral, and a nearby convent. It was pretty hot though, so after all the walking, we were quick to treat ourselves to a leisurely lunch, several coffee breaks and lots of ice cream! We eventually settled on the first tour company that we had visited in the morning, which was recommended by the hostel and only a few doors away. The man had quoted us the cheapest price for visiting both parks in one day, which is by private car only because the sites are so far away, but by the time we came back to confirm at the end of the day, he had found one more person to join us and the price dropped a little more, which we were of course not complaining about!! That night we went for a stroll round a few shops on the way to the supermarket, where we bought provisions to make what turned out to be an awesome chunky tomatoe soup for dinner, and food for lunch the next day.

The next morning we set out early (5am!!) and met our driver, and Ludo, a french guy who was the other person to joining our car. It was a long drive out to the first park, during which we mostly slept, save a few "getting to know you" conversations with our new friend. When we arrived and started our tour of the first park, Ischigualasto, it was very misty and visibility was poor, which resulted in rather blurry pictures. Once it had cleared up however, the scenery was just breathtakingly beautiful. All around us were sandblasted rocks in differen hues, accentuated by the rays of light that were shining on them - apparently clays, red sandstone and volcanic ash formations! We followed our guide around the park for a few hours, taking in first the petroglyphs left by the ancient civilisations of the valley, and later trying to visualise the shapes carved into the rocks by erosion and weathering. Have a look through the pictures and see if you can spot "The Worm", "The Submarine", "The Ball Court", "The Cathedral", "The Sphynx", "The King on the Camel", and "The Mushroom"!!! The park was also scattered with petrified tree-trunks and shrubs, with the whole place having a kind of moon-like feel, despite the occasional condor flying overhead. We continued on to the next stop, Talampaya, which consisted of a wide-bottomed canyon flanked by 180 m high rust coloured sandstone cliffs. These two were absolutely beautiful to behold, particularly as the sun began to move through the sky on its way to setting. We took another tour through the flora and fauna of the park, stopping at massive lake with flamingoes, and most notably at a spot called "The Chimmney", which is a rounded vertical groove stretching all the way up the cliff side. The first thing we had pointed out to us, was the fact that there was a bug embedded in the rock that could give you gangrene if it touched you. Needless to say, we stayed well away from it!!! The second and equally impressive thing, was the extraordinary echo that resonated through the park when you stood at the bottom of the groove. We all took turns shouting various things and heard the echo repeated almost five times very very far away, before watching every single group after us do the exact same thing!!! After all the excitement of the day, it was quickly time for the long drive back to San Juan, where we planned to catch an overnight bus on to Cordoba. Having been up so early, we slept most of the five or so hours back, waking just in time to be dropped at the bus station around 20 minutes before the next bus. We waved goodbye to our driver and Ludo and snuggled into our seats for yet another bus ride...