Chilecito

07.01.2015 – 08.01.2015

The city was founded in 1715, and the original name of it was Villa Santa Rita. The current name of Chilecito (Little Chile) came from the fact that many of the miners from Chile came here to work.

The Dakar was to make a stop here , but there was no official place for onlookers and I reached there in complete darkness.

Valley de Calingasta

03.01.2015 – 04.01-2015
Journey: Calingasta – Barreal – Valle de Calingasta – Barreal – San Juan (346 km).

Do not even remember exactly who suggested to visit the valley of Calingasta or was it myself to find a beautiful picture from internet.

Just now –searching for additional information - the sentence “The most beautiful part of the province of Mendoza and San Juan” comes in mind.

The local tourist information said that the road is more-or-less drivable and no more was needed .The beginning of the road had no road sign and so the previous day I just past it . Looking back now, it was probably with the aid of some unknown force and the issue that the rear axis was repaired last night (a longer story in a previous post).


And Calingasta Valley Road was completely driveable, although some parts were like stairways so that there was no way to drive thirty km per hour. As everything inside the car and outside the car will be scattered.

2015, The First Technical Issue

02.01.2015
Journey: Uspallata – Barreal - Calingasta (171 km).

The second of January has been like always the second of Januaries. As usually – the cultural program of the morning, and then let`s see how far can be reached.

The morning's cultural program included first the visit to Cerro Tunduqueral, located 7 kilometres away from Uspallata".


For Estonians Cerro Tunduqueral is a small hill, where one can see several well-preserved petroglyphs or gravings on the rocks

New Year's Eve in the mountains

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. – Steve Jobs”

31.12.2014 – 01.01.2015
Journey: Uspallata – Paso Bonillas – Uspallata (Kokku 65 km)

Strangely enough, it is now already my third New Year's Eve in Argentina.

The year 2013 was greeted on the way to Tierra del Fuego, having arrived at Mar de Platas. The New Year's Eve of 2014 was greeted in Salta, in the same place that I visited last year to watch Dakar Rally . The duration of the time, spent in Salta, turned out a little longer as planned, but gave an opportunity to enjoy The Carnival of Salta at the beginning of March. 

And now - the year of 2015, and again (still) in Argentina . Finding a place for the occasion was no problem at all, as between Uspallata and Mendoza the mountains are beautiful and there are a number of mountain paths not mentioned on most of the maps. So – why not drive there and find a cool place,


RP-13 is the third and smallest road across the mountains towards Mendoza. And quite drivable too.

Dakar 2015 - El Cadillal

15.01.2015
El Cadillal.

El Cadillal is a small village near Tucuman , and for Dakar again quite is a different surroundings . Usually Dakar is related to an open, sandy and dusty region.


There is, however, a large part of asphalt road here, and downhill there is some part of gravel road. On either side there is an area for spectators, a little muddy. And enough dusty to clean another camera.

Puente Del Inca

29.12.2014
Journey: Uspallata - Puente del Inca – Uspallata (140 km).

The title of this post might as well be, for example, "Time to accustom oneself again to the heights", or something similar, as during the previous months any type of "aklimati" has very likely got lost. Uspallata is two thousand meters from the sea level and driving here around - higher places were also experienced, but only a few hours.

It is said to be the right thing to do is the following – in the daytime upwards and then later downwards to overnight. The previous experience in Bolivia showed that driving slowly upwards this way there would be no problem in the altitude of 4000 m


In short - Uspallata was to be the place where to overnight later. It is in the mountains, and the temperature is also quite ok, not that almost + 35, and otherwise also quite a decent place.

Villavicencio and Ruta 52

26.12.2014
Journey: Mendoza – Uspallata (108 km)


The name – Villavicencio - can be noticed everywhere. On the large 6 liter water bottles and on small ones. And this place is about 40 km away from Mendoza.

Dakar 2015 - San Juan Colored Bridge

06.01.2015
San Juan, Argentina,


Puente de Colores – San Juan.

Dakar 2015 - Vallecito

05.01.2015
Vallecito, Argentina.

And here it is - Dakar Rally.

Mendoza Zoo

26.12.2014.

Mendoza Zoo is located almost in the center of the town .The Zoo was founded in the year of 1903, but the official opening took place only in 1941.

Park National Sierra de Las Quiadas

24.12.2014 – 25.12.2014
Journey: PN Sierra De Las Quijadas – Mendoza (251 km)

“Fans of the Road Runner cartoon will feel oddly at home among the red sandstone rock formations in this rarely visited national park” (Lonely Planet, Argentina 9th edition, Aug 2014). Quite a unique introduction


The park is situated 120 km from San Luisist, not directly on the road to Mendoza.