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Tropical jungles, millenary glaciers, colonial buildings and ruins with fossil remains are all part of a very much appreciated tourist circuit.
The Natural Ischigualasto and Talampaya Parks
Both parks extend over a surface of 275,300 hectares across a desert region in the provinces of San Juan and La Rioja. They feature the most complete set of fossil remains known of the triassic period (245 to 208 million years back).
The park’s six geological formations contain fossils of an ample range of mammals, dinosaurs and plants that reveal how the vertebrates evolved during the triassic period. No other place in the world features fossil remains that are comparable to those of the Ischigualasto–Talampaya parks.
Talampaya (located in La Rioja province) originates in the quechua words “Tala” = indigenous tree, “Ampa” = river, and “Aya” = extinguished thing. Both the fossil finds of reptiles and plants as well as the geological layers analysed are compatible with a period during which the large reptiles covered the earth. The differentially coloured sediments came up to the ground as they rose together with the Andes mountain range.
The erosion caused by wind and water gave shape to the Talampaya canyon that originated in the course of a dry river. It features rocks of strange silhouettes that were given names by popular imagination according to the images they suggested: the monk, the cathedral, the chimney or the chess board.
Carved out from the red soil, immense geological formations rise up from the canyon, the walls of which reach a height of up to 160 meters. The apex of the itinerary – which may be covered in a van – is the Cathedral, of an impressive dimension and rocky walls more than 100 meters high. The imprint of its ancient inhabitants was left behind in the Parque Talampaya, who described their experience of hunting different animals in petroglyphics and picture writing.
The Parque de Ischigualasto or Valle de la Luna (the Moon Valley) is located in San Juan province. The so-called Hoyada de Ischigualasto is a desert valley where extreme temperatures and an almost permanent wind has eroded the soil and modelled natural sculptures. The present landscape was formed by wind, water and other meteorological phenomena, giving rise to strange shapes. This is the case of El Submarino, one of the best known rock sculptures, and El Hongo (the mushroom) and La Esfinge (the sphynx).
The Block and the Ranches of the Jesuits in Córdoba
“The Block” comprises the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús (the church of the Company of Jesus), the domestic chapel, the order’s residence and the office of the dean of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina’s Córdoba university) with its administrative buildings, the cloister, the graduates’ hall, the Biblioteca Mayor (the main library) and the Colegio Nacional de Monserrat (the Montserrat secondary school).
The construction of the complex was managed by the missionaries and carried out by thousands of American Indians who learned the crafts of masonry work, gold and silver work, cabinet-making, and and blacksmith work. The imprint of their work has a unique style, consisting in the blending of native art and European baroque.
The ranches distributed across the province of Córdoba are a singular exhibit of the production organization of this religious order in Argentina. They were set up or acquired for agricultural production purposes in the 17th century for the keep and maintenance of the schools and other houses of study, although they served the jesuits’ purpose of expanding the influence of the Catholic religion.
The ranches were agricultural and livestock establishments that had everything to provide for their own sustenance. There were settlements for the personnel, the residence for the ranch-owner Fathers and Brothers and a chapel for the celebrating of holy rites. The ranches named Jesús María, Caroya, Santa Catalina, La Candelaria and Alta Gracia may be taken in on a 250 kilometer- tour that travels along hilly roads.
All these establishments were named A Cultural Heritage of Humanity in the year 2000 by UNESCO.
The Los Glaciares National Park
It is located in the southwest of Santa Cruz province. This national park was created in order to preserve an extended area of continental ices and glaciers of the southern Andean and Patagonian forests, as well as an exhibit of the Patagonian steppe. Thousands of years ago a large part of its present territory was covered by glaciers.
As they flowed forward these rivers of ice eroded and gave shape to the landscape, carving steep-walled valleys out of the mountains. At the same time they broke up a large number of rocks into small ones and dragged them along, so that they accumulated at the sides and ahead of the glacier, forming small heaps.
A later change of climate accompanied by an increase in temperature caused the reduction in the surface taken up by the glacier, until it reached the size it has nowadays. On account of its spectacular beauty, its geo-morphological interest and as an object for the study of glaciers as well as its animal species in danger of extinction UNESCO in 1981 nominated this place as a World Asset of Humanity.
Even though one usually finds the great masses of ice of the world at a height of over 2500 meters above sea level, the Santa Cruz glaciers originate at 1500 meters and flow down to only 200 meters. This allows their access and a view that is unique in the world. The Perito Moreno Glaciar is located in the south of the park and is the one most visited by tourists. It is in constant motion and big chunks of ice fall off its front part. The nearest settlement to this glaciar is called El Calafate.
Península Valdés
The Península Valdés, a peninsula extending out into the Atlantic ocean and belonging to the province of Chubut, is inhabited by a large and diverse population of sea animals. It is to this fauna that the place owes its nomination by UNESCO as an Asset of Humanity. The species that most attract the tourists are the whales, which arrive at the gulfs of San José and Nuevo in the month of June. They stay there until December (the summer in the southern hemisphere) to mate and to give birth to their offspring, which are born weighing three tons each.
September, October and November are the ideal months to visit the peninsula, on account of its milder temperatures (the arrival of the southern spring) that enable tourists to take motorboat rides. Other species include sea lions, killer whales, dolphins, penguins and various species of birds. Guanacos can be seen farther inland.
Another great tourist attraction are the Magellan penguins, nicknamed “geese without wings” by the Europeans that came to the shores of Chubut in the 16th century. These strange birds have fins for swimming instead of wings and inhabit the Punta Tombo reserve, which is located some 180 kms. south of Puerto Madryn and prides itself of being the largest continental penguin reserve, with an adult population of more than 400,000 birds.
