- Organize rental cars for the next 4 days
- Drive to San Agustin de Valle Fértil
- Stop at the pilgrimage site of Difunta Correa
After an early breakfast, we start looking for a rental car for the next four days. We want the northern ones Ischigualasto parks and Talampaya visit. Somehow I enjoy not having to organize too much. We are lucky and find what we are looking for with the first provider, a little smaller than desired, but just enough for the four of us with plenty of luggage. While the car is being cleaned briefly, we pack and load our travel belongings.
We leave the San Juan in an easterly direction, where we buy some snacks and have a soft drink in a suburb en route. The car thermometer shows one as early as 11 a.m. Outside temperature of 39 degrees and we are happy about air-conditioned driving.
On the way we pass it Pilgrimage site Difunta Correa, where we make a stop, roam souvenir shops and especially the hill with his Devotional chapel visit. As elsewhere in Latin America, the Catholic faith has taken on peculiar forms here. According to legend, the mother died of thirst looking for her murdered husband in the desert. The infant is said to have survived on her breastwhat today can attract believers from all over Argentina and beyond. In honor of the saint, pet bottles with water are donated, miniature houses are set up, car signs and wristbands are attached or happiness is simply wished for one's own family and property.
Later we turn onto the lonely road through the greener one Valle Fértil from. Now and then there is a magnificent cactus tree to be seen, while on our left - a forerunner of the Andes - the Sierra de Valle Fertil towers.
In the late afternoon we arrive in the only real town in the region. San Agustin de Valle Fértil seems rather sleepy, but serves as a starting point for tomorrow's detour to the Ischigualasto Provincial Park.
