Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon)
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8 May 2003.
Otherwise known as Ischigualasto National Park in Argentina. We stayed in San Juan - some four hours from the park. We felt very welcome with the local " You're not from round here looks". It was the kind of place where the locals went home at lunchtime to practice dualling banjos.
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This is a bad picture for an amazing museum in San Juan. The people here, spent two hours explaining how Valle del Lune and the surrounding areas all have thousands of Dinosaurs fossils. Here you can see a fossil still half set in stone as it was extracted from Ischigualasto.
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The next day we took an all day excursion to Valle de Luna. Two hundred million years ago dinosaurs thrived and died here. These ancient rock formations and fossils enabled us to feel that we were in a totally different planet.
Because the valley doesn't drain it has a high content of salt so plants don't grow. Therefore dirt and humus have not accumulated over time. ie fossils are all over the place and constantly uncovered by the wind.
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Jason decided to be a prince for the day (read role-reversal). This handy throne dates back to Triassic times.
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The balls in the background are spherical concretions that have all been shaped by erosion. They were all in the same place in the Park.
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This is the 'Sphinx' -an amazing natural foramtion.
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and the submarino... with cheesey tourists in front.
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Lastly El Hongo (some 30 metres high).
We then got in the car with our driver for the day to go to Parque Provincial Talampaya.
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