Northern Argentina

Hello again,
We were thinking some of: San Juan/El Barreal, La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman. Thoughts on these and any other suggestions appreciated.
Cheers,
Sam and Liz

In San Juan you should visit Ischigualasto (valle de la luna, moon valley),
it's in the border with La Rioja, from that side is called Talampaya (I visited Ischigualasto, but I saw Talampaya from the distance, it looked so nice and red!)
Ischigualasto

you could visit the Difunta Correa sanctuary on your way, it's a pretty weird place, and you can find it intersting (or not), many tourists visit it, besides the believers.

let me quote myself from, a previous post:

you can visit Santuario de la Difunta Correa (how can I translate that? Dead Mrs Correa Sanctuary...?). Difunta Correa is a pagan saint, she's not a catholic saint, but anyway specailly in that area many people are devoted to her and said that she makes miracles. Let me tell you quickly her story: it was 1840-50... this woman, Deolinda Correa, lived in San Juan. The troops arrived there recruiting men to fight against aborigins, and they took Deolinda's husband, against his will. After they left, she decided to follow them trough the desert, to reach the campament and join her husband. She had a baby. For some reason she decided to face the danger with the baby. It seems that it was in a hurry, with no time to prepare nothing. She got lost in the desert without water. She tried to feed the baby and gave him her breast, meanwhile she was dying of thirsty. When she was found by some arrieros she was dead, an dthe baby was alive, and her breast still had milk. So this is the story of her first miracle. After that, someone asked for something to her, and then said the prayer had been listened and fulfilled, and you imagine the rest.
in the sanctuary, which is pretty strange and pintoresque, you'll see the things with which people "pay" the miracles: brides gave to Difunta Correa their wedding dresses, for instance. But the usual gift for Difunta Correa are... bottles of water.
well, you can go or not, but I thought that this could be interesting to know,
you can see the site, but no English version:
http://www.visitedifuntacorrea.com.ar/<BR>it has pictures. In the Capilla de las Novias album (brides'capel) you 'll see the dresses I told you. Ah,when a bride is going to get marry and hasno money for a new dress, she can borrow a dress from the capel...

Barreal and Cayafate are great towns to hang out in.

Ive just got back to Mendoza from Calingasta Valley/Barreal area, beautiful and well worth a couple of days, only public bus access from San Juan though, not Mendoza. Ischigualasto OK, Talampaya I thought more spectacular, though in both Parks you are really rushed round in agency vehicles (virtually impossible to do either without an agency) and dont really have time to make the most of them. The area north of Jujuy to Bolivia border looked fantastic from the bus, you could easily spend a few days in the villages there and walking nearby, there's also some Inca ruins (will have to wait for another trip though!)
Have fun!

Carlos Pelligrini -- Esteros del Ibera in the corrientes provience. It's more northeast from Mendoza you then you might like, but it was a highlight of my trip. Small place with litte tourism and tons of wildlife.