Once we read about the volcanos and black pampas of La Payunia we knew that it would have to feature in our itinerery. It’s a good distance from Malargue so makes for a long day, and Santiago picked us up at 8.30am, this time we were in a group of 10 including two ladies from our trip the day before.
Watching out for Guanacos
We took the same route out of town and past the Cavernas de las Brujas, crossed the Rio Grande (which didn’t look too grande to me!) and crossed arid land, colourful mountains on which you could see coloured layers and unpopulated landscapes. After turning off the Ruta 40 into the pampas suddenly the landscape changed, I realised we were surrounded by black earth with tufts of yellows and greens coming through! The shapes of the hills and mountains changed too. The black landscape broken by flaxen grasses was so stricking but, frankly, looked a little bonkers! There are a number of volcanos in the area and Santiago said there is huge debate regarding the date of the last erruption, some saying 600 years and others saying much longer. Apparently scientists have been doing tests and later in the year they will have the results.
Walking on it was interesting, I expected it to be very dense and hard, but it was actually surprisingly softer. I was wearing flip flops at this point, and it was like walking on extremely large grains of sand, they were little, tiny stones butfelt lighter than walking on pebbles…., actually I am realising that since it’s unlike anything I have experienced it’s difficult to explain!
Santiago with his catch
We were back in the van, Santiago driving along when suddenly he slammed on the breaks and dived out of the van, landing on the ground – he’d spotted an Armadillo and caught it for us to look at! Amazing little creature, and man it is fast but it was probably due to the fright it got!
Then we saw a volcano in the distance, with a red shadow – red rocks due to ironoxide. Cut quite a striking profile against the blue sky. We stopped regularly to take in this stunning, crazy landscape, having lunch surrounded by dormant volcanos. Later we were driven between two peaks and left to roam, so we climbed to the top of the higher hill to be given a bird’s eye view over the vast land around, with the Andes in the distance and the pampas in the distance – felt like we were on top of the world. So beautiful, grand, vast and varied. One of the group went for a walk and he turned into a mere light speck in the darkness around. Once back from our walk we were then driven to the crater of another volcano, and from near the top you could follow the lava flow from where it started to where it flowed and consumed the land around, cooling to form bizzare shapes.
Red and black
What a day! Although disappointed that we didn’t go to the Llancanelo Lagoon, home to flocks of flamingos, apparently there are no birds there at the moment as they have moved on with the autumn weather (although I am still sure that the Argentina V Venezuela football match on that evening may have had something to do with our speedy return!) we saw the most amazing sights – if you can, you must see it to believe it!
Map location of Payunia click here
Volcan Payun Matru
Black pampas and volcanos
Hi M&P,I’m enjoying very much keeping up with your travels; I love the description of the caves; all sounds a bit hair-raising. The food diary’s fab, too. Oops, that reminds me – I’ve left the goat’s cheese under the grill, one mo . . . errr, anyone for well-done, grilled goat’s cheese . . .? Happy travels, lotsoluv Ju x
Hi Ju
Thanks! Really behind in my blog posts at the moment, we are just back from Puerto Iguazu were we visited the Iguazu Falls – beautiful and stunning…and hot! Will try to get more posts done this week!
Px