the valley of the moon

Valle de la Luna is just beautiful. The scenery is amazing and there are many visiting options. The problem is visitors are not well informed. We were not offered the variety of activities available and we only got to know about them after seeing some displayed photos. We tried the trekking, which we could not finish because of strong wind but we really enjoyed the peace of the area. Our guide, Mauricio, was very helpful, nice and informative, full of knowledge and ready to help. Apart from this trekking activity, the organization of the visit is not really effective: people are guided into the park in their own private cars, which means a troop of cars are constantly going through! Besides, this system does not give you the possibility of stopping and enjoying the local fauna. Busses should be provided to avoid the impact of tourism. During high seasons there are cars going nose to tail endlessly, very disappointing!

It is a really special place where it is easy to imagine how time has affected our planet. we visited it in winter and it was very hot during the day , It is advisable to wear very confortable clothes and to take sun block . There are some amazing stone shapes the colours are incredible,Although there are some stalls which sell crafts , they were really very poor,

The park and the scenery is truly amazing. In the evening you can see how colors changes on the mountains. A good thing, that after the last stop, they let you drive back by yourself so you can stop as many times as you want to take pictures. For us, the ride back was longer then the tour.:) On the over side, yes, we paid double for the entrance. Our guide didn't speak English or didn't want to. I know very little Spanish so the tour for me was pointless. I feel that I missed a lot not knowing how everything formatted and so on. So why we are paying double but not getting anything extra? Would it be so hard to make one tour per day in English or pay for the guide's English lessons? The same goes for front desk. There was one girl who spoke perfect English, but made clear that she is not happy to do so. I felt very stupid and uncomfortable during this tour. The accommodations around are expensive and you have only few options. We stayed in small town Pagancillo just before Villa Union. There are people renting cabanas, like bed and breakfast without breakfast. Ours was rather cheap and clean. Just ask anybody for cabanas and their will direct you. There is only one restaurant and here we had the best humitas in Argentina.

When to go: the last trip is around 16.30 and the colors are at their best! You have more shadows playing over de the rocks and beter opportunities for great pictures.We came to the Valle on our motorbikes and luckily a nice Argentinan driver offers us a lift because driving in a colonne of 20 cars with a bike is no fun.All the 5 stops had something special. And the drive itself offered also great vistas. The guide explained everything in Spanish for the whole group but is also prepared to give an explanation in English if you ask for it. We especially liked the moon landscape and those round stones. Really mysterious!!And yes, you have to pay extra being a foreigner but that happens in a lot of places in this country. And it is still fairly cheap for 3,5 hour of beautiful scenery.

A national park with well organised guided tours. You will need your own transport to get out there and around the valley as you cannot walk in. Tour guide was knowledgeable and spoke some English but it would help to have prior knowledge of what you are about to see as the huge scale of our earths history is well demonstrated here and will instantly captivate even the least prepared. You are not allowed to wander off marked paths and if you know anything about argentines you will accept this restriction in good faith, without it you would find rock faces covered in ugly graffiti, no fossils at all and the whole place cut-up by wheel marks. No smoking and no throwing rubbish out of your vehicle makes this one of the cleanest places in Argentina I have ever seen.

Espectacular place with lots of fantastic rock formations, fossilised plants and mixture of colors and textures. You can get good deals with diferent tours company. The bad stuff: if you are foreign they make you pay double (sort of discrimination if you ask me). Try to get there on low season (think october-april) cause they only have one guide for all the group (really annoying if you try to see or hear something in a queue of 60 people in front of you and they respective cars). Prices: national $70 (argentinian peso) turist $130. Same price for your car if you are driving your own. A place to enjoy and to take superb photos.

The principle is to wait for a few cars to be present and put a guide in the first car and then do the 40 km loop drive. You then have 5 stops. I was lucky enough to have the guide in my car so I got extra information. He was very knowledgeable about the area and pretty passionate which i really liked. The park and the drive to the park is magnificent, something out of the ordinary, especially for European people as we sure do not have anything similar back on our continent. I highly recommend it. The red of some of the mountain is magnificent. And the eeriness of some parts of the park interesting. Apparently they also do some full moon tours, I would have liked to go on one of these

The park is nice, but you really need your own transport to get here. Otherwise it will be hard to get there. NO shade in the park and you always get a guide but the guides are really friendly and they really know their park.

Moon of the Valley ( Valle de la Luna) it´s and amazing place, and it´s worth to visit. The only problem is that it needs more human resources and better hotels and restaurant. Really the landscapes are fantastic and it seems like you were travelling on space. I know that it´s not easy to get there but I promess that if you go you will not regret it. The best: you can actually, go to moon valley at night with full moon, we couldn´t do it but everybody say that it is a unique expierience.

Лунная долина – место, в котором действительно можно поверить, что ты на Луне. Особенность посещения в том, что надо ехать на своей машине, рейнджеры ждут пока соберется группа из 6-8 машина и ведут за собой по грунтовой дороге, проезжаю круг километров в 60, кажется. В целом поездка занимает около 3 часов. Это даже сложно описать – смотрите фотографии. Посещать обязательно! Самое удивительное место – точка, где природа невообразимым образом обтесала камни в виде шаров, которые «разбрелись» по территории.

Si vas a San Juan, este es un lugar donde el viajero no debe dejar de visitar.ideal para fotografiar y para situarse en un lugar que tiene 2500000000 de años de evolución constante.La cuna de triásico, porque allí se encuentran en sus montañas, colores, estructuras talladas a través de las eras, con todas las etapas del triásico.El costo del parque es de $100 por persona y es mas barato para niños, estudiantes (averiguar) y el paseo se desarrolla con guía y es fundamental tener un vehículo. En auto, se puede hacer sin problema, ya que el recorrido no presenta grandes dificultades. Llevar agua y protección solar. Las temperaturas son altas y el sol castiga. Pro eso no debe acobardar al amigo aventurero.Fotógrafos y estudiantes de geología no dejen de ir.Los guías del lugar, te explican con mucha claridad y en forma didáctica, lo cual se hace entendible sin inconvenientes.Un viaje al pasado, una maravilla del paso del tiempo.

Realmente es imperdible. Se tarda como una cuatro horas den llegar desde el Centro de San Juan, pero vale la pena. El paisaje es hermoso y la vista es cautivadora. No se lo pueden perder. Eso si, no se olviden la gorrita y una gran botella de agua, el calor es matador.

Es bueno para iniciar este viaje, llegar el día anterior a la ciudad de San Juan, y a la mañana muy temprano, partir por la zona de departamento 25 de mayo, camino a San Luis, pasando por Caucete, Casuarinas, y tomar el desvío por la zona de la Difunta Correa, desde ahí, hasta San Agustín del Valle Fértil. Luego, de una zona de subidas y bajadas continuas se llega al cabo de un rato al parque Nacional Ischigualasto. Hay servicios básicos, una recorrida con buenas explicaciones, y un poco corta, la visita si uno busca panorámicas, que ofrece el valle, para fotografías. Al fondo, ya en el cierre del reccorido, al avistar el famoso hongo, la pared roja, al norte, señala el límite próximo con la provincia de la Rioja.Una visita recomendada, es el paseo nocturno, a plena luna llena. A la salida del parque se puede dirigir uno hacia el parque Nacional de Talampaya, camino a Pangastillo, luego tomar a la vuelta por, la famosa cuesta de los Miranda y salir antes de llegar a Chilecito, Retornar por el valle de la Puerta, hasta Patquía y de ahí nuevamente unos 70 km hasta la ciudad de la Rioja capital.

Se recorre en auto y yendo en caravana con otros autos, por horarios y con un guia que explica muy a tono las descripciones del parque. Hay lugar para acampar, pero fuera del parque con buenas instalaciones y no dejan hacer fuego. El restaurant del lugar esta abierto hasta las 21 aproximadamente. Increibles noches estrelladas!! Visitar si es posible las noches de luna llena!!

Una belleza natural que nos dio la naturaleza lo cual debería ser visitado por todo ser humano ya que ahí se reflejaron los movimientos terrestres hace mas de 250 millones de años lo que en muy pocos lugares del mundo esta la posibilidad de apreciar lo que paso en ese tiempo realmente muy recomendable