After an early breakfast you will be taken on a full day excursion.
 
A spirit of adventure is definitely needed to explore the quieter provinces of San Juan and La Rioja, but the intrepid will be rewarded with wonderful forgotten valleys offering perfect peace and natural beauty, if somewhat lacking in infrastructure.
 
The undoubted stars of the region are two national parks - likely to make you feel dwarfed by both time and space. The ‘Valley of the Moon’ at Ischigualasto 340 kmts from San Juan is indeed an out of this world landscape: a 200 million year old lake-bed, strewn with fossils from first life forms to dinosaurs. And Talampaya’s vast canyons of terracotta rock, eroded by wind into gigantic sculptures, are magnificent at sunset when they turn a vivid red.
 
Long before the Andes mountains were formed along the spine of South America, what is now called the Valley of the Moon in Argentina's northwest San Juan province was a vast depression of ancient sediments of the Triassic geological period. This era lasted some 45 million years before the beginning of the Mesozoic era, and supported flora and fauna and… dinosaurs.
 
The climate then was wet and tropical. Now it is desert like and sere, with fantastic rock formations caused by time and erosion marking the landscape and prompting geologists, paleontologists and visitors to marvel at the history and landscape of what is now, together with Talampaya National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
 
Late transfer to Villa Union 145 kmts from Moon Valley.
 
Overnight at Hotel Pircas Negras.
 
Next day