"San Juan Province" Provincia de San Juan by GentleSpirit

My travel agent in Argentina thought I was absolutely crazy when I insisted that this would be a stop on my first trip back to Argentina. Most tourists would go to neighboring Mendoza province.

More than anything else I wanted to see this area to see Ischigualasto and Talampaya Parks, which were both more than I had expected. Like several other places in Argentina, several nearly complete dinosour bodies have been discovered in Ischigualasto/Talampaya.

I arrived on a flight from Aeroparque. I had asked for an early flight, but when I got to the airport I had to wonder if I would make it on time since the hall was packed with people going to Mendoza.

My travel agent had arranged a few days in San Juan. From the airport we would go to Valle Fertil, which would be our base. The first day we would go see Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), the next we would go to Talampaya National Park, which is in neighboring La Rioja Province.

I was met at the airport by Carlos from a travel outfit called Valley Moon. He was a bit surprised that I wanted to visit during the week (just coincidence actually) as most of the visitors he dealt with came from Buenos Aires for the weekend. He didn't know I could speak Spanish, so he told me he had been very nervous since he didn't use english as much as he wanted. We hit it off well and had a great time for the next few days.

It remoteness is both a huge advantage and disadvantage at the same time. Because it hasn't been touched by large scale tourism it provides a much more genuine experience. At the same time it provides relatively fewer creature comforts for the visitor. I found the warmth of the locals and the quality of the attractions more than enough to compensate.

• Pros:fabulous weather, paleontology, Ischigualasto Park, the locals!!!
• Cons:lack of infrastructure, poor transportation links
• In a nutshell:"the heat was hot and the ground was dry, but the air was full of sound"- a horse with no name