11th February 2015 – Mendoza to La Rioja

Today is a big driving day of 600 kilometers to La Rioja. We bypassed San Juan which meant we were traveling on back roads through a residential area which looked quite poor.  Some of the houses didn’t even have glass in the windows.Our morning tea stop was in a picnic area next to a vineyard and opposite were some houses with lots of children out the front, calling out to us across the road. School doesn’t start back until the start of March, they have 2 school terms, with a 2 week holiday in the middle of the year. The Andes have been to our left all day, as this morning we drove through sandy scrub and this afternoon the vegetation is taller and thicker.The road is sealed and has a good surface. At times it’s like driving on the “Big Dipper” the road looks like it has a folded ribbon on it and we lose sight of the car in front as it goes down into a dip. Some of the dips are across dried river beds & others have water in them, it’s the weirdest feeling driving over them especially when there are 4 in a row.Our lunch stop was at the rear of a service station where we filled up, but what the venue lacked in atmosphere, the smoked salmon, Gruyere cheese & sun dried tomato  sandwich made up for it, courtesy of the Hyatt Hotel breakfast bar.We saw our first cactus today, some of them are quite big and some are even flowering.There were 3 very large mesas on the side of the road today, the colors of the rock layers are stunning and the natural erosion made them look as though they had been carved.It has been quite hot again today about 36 degrees in the car. We are now at latitude 30 which is between Sydney & Brisbane, so it’s no surprise it is getting hotter.  La Rioja is a nice town, with a large plaza in the centre and shopping malls off it. The plaza is full of tress with jacarandas and a couple of elephant trees (boab) among them. It seems everyone has a small bike the town was full of them and they all seemed to be blowing their horns so it was quite noisy.  There is a lovely Cathedral just off the plaza which was full for a service, on a Wednesday night.