Ischigualasto park is a million-years-old park with many landscapes and sculpted rocks. Located close to another famous park called Talampaya, Ischigualasto park will make you believe in visiting the moon. I took advantage to be in San Juan for visiting the park.
Ischigualasto Park
Presentation
Ischigualasto park also called Valle de la Luna ( Moon valley ) brings you to extraordinary landscapes that remind the moon. The reason is the many different million-years-old landscapes. If before, it was covered by water and vegetation was vast, now only sand and rocks are staying. In spite of this, thanks to the colors and the work of the wind, the park is continually changing and amazing to discover.
Each kilometer, you will be in another paleontology era. Thus, the landscapes are changing a lot. Not only the tourists are happy, the paleontologists as well, as they can study many things. As a result, many fossils have been found.
The tour inside the park
The visit of the park Ischigualasto is done by car as it is too long for walking. A road is opened up and in an enough good state for driving with any car. During the tour, we stopped at 5 renowned places and the museum.
Those 5 stops are changing continually as the park is being transformed by the wind. The park is protected against the man action but let the nature evolved without interfering in it.
I believe you can do it walking or bicycling in a different place. But in any case, you need to do the first visit before.
It is a desert so the day are hot and night are cold!
The painted valley
This was the place covered by water. This resulted in the many strata you can see. This landscape repeats itself over many kilometers in any direction.
The field of balls
Those balls have been created a long time ago. Scientists have many ideas but none is proven. Initially, under the ground, the wind is removing slowly the sand. After appearing over the ground, they finished by being destroyed by this same wind.
On pictures, they always look very big. However, they aren’t !!
The sphinx
Many rocks are being eroded by the wind. The resulting shape of the rock can look like something known. Here, the rock has a shape of a sphinx.
The submarine
Another rock that looks like a submarine. A few months ago, there was another rock tower in the middle. Thus, it looked more like a submarine. However, the rock tower collapsed a few months ago. Those rocks are still visible on the ground. Later on, the other tower will also collapse.
The Museum
A museum has been built in the middle of nowhere inside the park. It is devoted to explain the paleontological importance of the place. Many scientists from around the world and students from the school close to the park are studying the park.
For the visit, a student is explaining us some of the discoveries and how they did it. On the floor, we saw some fossils like when discovered by the scientists.
The mushroom
Last stop and the current icon of the park. This rock with a shape of a mushroom in front of the red mountain is really beautiful. At the same time, the sun was going down. The resulting colors were astonishing.
How to visit it
Where to stay
The park is located 70 kms far from Villa San Agustín and 270 kms from San Juan. Hence, visiting it from San Juan is difficult, exhausting and expensive. The best option is to go to Villa San Agustín. A bus is going to the city from San Juan for 202AR$ and 4 hours of journey.
Choose a tour
From Villa San Agustín, many tours offer to visit the park. I took the one with my hostel Ischigualasto as I heard it is good and the cheapest option. It cost me 450AR$ for a van that commuted to the park ( 1 hour ) and drove in it (3-4 hours). I had to pay the entrance fee when I reached the park (250AR$) on top of the cost of the tour. The park institution provided a guide that explained to our van and the other tourists the history of the park.
My feeling
The whole is a bit expensive but I was satisfied for the driver, the beauty of the place and the explanations (Only in Spanish). I did the visit from 3pm to 9pm as the organizer told us that it is the best for the orientation with the sun and for seeing the sunset.
You can also visit Talampaya park but the tour is much more expensive.
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