Argentina

November 6-29, 2009

November 23: Lago los Barreales and Proyecto Dino: General Roca

We would have loved to explore dinosaur country some more but we weren`t sure what finding accomodations would be like and we were still way too far to make the trip all the way back to Buenos Aires so we left the dinosaur park in search of a place to stay.

We hit Neuquen city late afternoon but the tourism office was not helpful in booking accomodations and navigating the city to just try and find some of the hotel addresses and check for vacancy was too difficult. So we decided to brave rush hour traffic and head a little further to the smaller city of General Roca to try our luck. Once again we stopped at the tourist information place and armed with several addresses we took off to find a place to stay for the night. We opted for the Hotel and Resto bar `La Fundacion` for 190 Argentine pesos for the night.

There was a geocache towards the center of town so we decided to park nearby and try and find the geocache. Once again, the geocaching curse of Argentina was upon us and we failed to find the cache. Tired and hungry we abandoned the search and decided to walk around to try and find a restaurant. Well the Argentine food gods were also not smiling on us today and it was starting to get dark and we still had not found a restaurant. We tried to ask for recommendations in local shops but apparently people don`t go out to eat in General Roca. Finally we found a pub that was open but the food was not exactly stellar. Yup, we were definitely ready to head back to Christine`s tomorrow!

Leaving the Dino Park we wonder what other fossils are hidden in the surrounding cliffs.

If that sheep up there isn't careful, its bones will end up down in the dino camp!

Sheeposaurus.

A last look out over Lago Los Barreales.

Driving through oil country.

Driving across one of the many dams that make up a huge hydroelectric complex in the area.

Advertisement from one of the wineries in the area where dinosaur bones were found in the vineyard...
the family decided to name the wine "Saurus" in honour of the find.

Back in Gauchito Gil country.

As we were trying to find the tourist information in the city of Neuquen we couldnt' believe our eyes when a car carrier drove by loaded with classic cars from the race/tour we'd witnessed on our way from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes.