LAVALLE

About 34 kilometres from the Capital City of Mendoza, Lavalle is famous for its traditions, its religious festivities, and because we can find surviving Huarpe indigenous communities, with their native customs, on its outskirts. Visits can be made to the Historical Chapel, the Regional Museum and the House of the Beekeeper.

Lavalle is an extensive plain where the population is much dispersed. They grow apricots, prunes, damson plums, grapes and almonds. It is also known for its sweet watermelons and melons. It has a nice and sunny weather.

Lavalle is also an important honey producer in the province. It has more than 7500 beehives, and an annual production of about 250000 kgs.

One of its most attractive spots is what they call "altos limpios", where the sand dunes are as impressive as the ones in the famous Sahara desert.

Ecological tourism has grown in Lavalle by blending the pleasures of discovering and understanding the flora and fauna, with the opportunity of contributing to their conservation. The well-known circuits combine past history, culture and religion.

The Capilla del Rosario (Chapel of the Rosary)
It is situated about 107 kms from the City of Mendoza, along National Route N° 40 going to San Juan. A little more than half way down the road, we turn right as going to Rosario Lake. 15 kms down this road, we turn to the left and drive 30 kms further to reach the Chapel.

The first chapel was constructed in 1630 with Carob tree trunks and branches.The second one was made out of adobe in 1753, and was erected by Franciscan priests with native support and at the request of the Junta de Pobladores, a Chilean Citizens' group. In 1861 the chapel was destroyed. It was reconstructed three years later.

The chapel has simple lines, with long walls, small domes and front arches. The interior is long and narrow; it has a single nave. Two mezzanines rise above it: one lateral and the other, which forms a chorus, communicates with the courtyard through a small balcony.

The Telteca Forest and The Altos Limpios Sand Dunes
107 kilometres from the City of Mendoza, along National Route N° 40, Provincial Route N° 34, and the National Route N° 142, we arrive to the junction of the San Juan and Mendoza Rivers, an area where the ruins of a once important lake complex of Guanacache still stand.

The Interpreters Centre El Pichon is located there, and park custodiants provide the visitor with the necessary information to join the excursion to the Telteca Natural Reserve and the Municipal Development Area.

Sandy deserts govern the landscape: nothing shows that for more than a thousand years there was in this area a stable ecosystem of ponds and wetlands, with abundant fish, aquatic birds, guanacos and Ñandu (South American ostriches), and a large aboriginal population.

At the end of the XIXth century, an immigrant wave and the systematic use of water wells for irrigation provoked decisive environmental changes until the lakes finally dried up in 1960.

The Reservation area comprises 204,000 has. The purpose is to protect the mountain's flora and fauna. It is a hundred year old carob forest, which remains as a sample of an ecosystem that used to occupy great extensions of the province's territory. We can observe parrots, parakeets, plovers, vizcachas, pumas and foxes.

We recommend travellers to hire guides for a walking tour. Or to get on a truck that takes adventurers to the sandy terrain of Altos Limpios, a series of sand dunes shaped by the wind. Sumer visit are not recomended.