San Rafael
A thriving city crisscrossed by rivers Diamante and Atuel with tree-lined streets and irrigation canals, surrounded by vineyards. She is the starting point to build walks around, they stay at Los Alamos, one of the most traditional farms in the region.
They are required at least two days to enjoy the place, owned Bombal Aldana, ten kilometers from San Rafael. The spacious rooms of the mansion dating from 1830, are full of family memories and their illustrious visitors, and outside, between the countryside and the vineyards was built a maze in memory of Jorge Luis Borges once frequent guest house designed by British Randolph Coate, an authority on the subject. In time, when the boxwoods grow, you can move between real Forking Paths and draw upward writer’s name, as Camilo Aldana son dreamed when I launched the idea.
Cuesta leave Los Alamos and it is because of comfort, good food and the good work of their hosts; if it were up to them, one eternizaría on the farm. But ultimately, the environment and its temptations to break just laziness, from wineries to visit sanrafaelinas noted in certain programs like horseback riding adventure, and the good summer weather, the classic rafting Atuel Canyon.
Exclusive program for the months of December to March is going to the lake 4×4 Diamond. The trip requires leaving San Rafael at dawn to arrive, when the picnic, the picturesque lake which mirrored the solitary volcano Maipo. Just mark the border with Chile, the truncated cone is cut by the horizon, altitude 5323 meters, and stands out from the thin line tracing the distant mountains. When you approach, you can see on its slopes occasional glacier. At his feet, the 14 km2 lagoon Diamond kept green and blue waters, very popular during the summer by fishermen looking for trout.
Malargüe
From San Rafael to do almost 200 km of asphalt to reach Malargüe, department blessed by oil wealth and geography, the first it has become the most prosperous in the whole province and the other in the capital of adventure tourism ; the diversity of activities that can be developed in its volcanic mountain landscape character and immeasurable valleys justify that distinction.
One of its most popular attractions is the Cave of the Witches, which is accessible by hiking all day. The site is a collection of interconnected walls forming attractive openings in the rock. The fun is getting there and watch between the chalky texture, whimsical shapes that give a ghostly tone to the solidification of carbonates and silicates. Blasted, mantles, stalactites, stalagmites and columns protruding from the gloom.
Another curiosity, following southbound, Payunia road to paved road and is the Malacara volcano. It results in one of the most original new ventures: it is an amazing journey through the interior of a volcano of Holocene period, or recently, whose walls show shades ranging from black to yellow and where you can see fly Tyto Alba, a white owl that took over the lugar.- to the north of the city, however, going by the provincial route 222 the fertile environment of a beautiful valley, with its gorges are appreciated, and you open edges. Along the Salt River and into the sparse multiple green pepper trees and fields jarillas appear.
In Los Molles you can enjoy the benefits of thermal water and sulfur in the inn Laguen Co, with their individual pools and facilities of other times. When it’s hot, sinkholes attract many tourists: geological formations where the earth opens deep well full of water, such as Laguna La Niña Encantada, turquoise waters and coast of basaltic rocks, and beyond question, Pozo de las Animas, of incalculable depth. Later, the valley of Las Lenas and two versions for winter skiing and adventure mix during the summer.
Dunes Nihuil
An output of extreme adventure, 92 km from San Rafael in a stunning desert dunes that reach 200 meters high. Some progress in 4 x 4 to the green oasis formed by watersheds born under the sand. Others, from the top, slip on board, boards. In any case, the experience is priceless.
Laguna Llancanelo
It is another of the reserves in the area, and is among the city of Malargüe and Provincial Reserve Payunia. It’s huge, salty blue waters. Its area of 65 thousand hectares, breaks with the prevailing desert and is home to over 90 species of birds. Including ducks, gulls, herons and yellow-legged plovers from distant latitudes during the summer.
For this reason, it is a strictly protected reserve and there are certain areas of the lake that are intangible: the mere presence of man can break the environmental balance. The south coast is the only one where you can take pictures and capture the gait of flamingos and black-necked swans, masters of the place.
By Julia Caprara – Travel Places
