JUNIN

This department is 50 kms east of the Capital City. In it, every piece of land is cultivated: San Martin is to the north, Rivadavia to the south, Santa Rosa to the southeast, and Maipu and Lujan de Cuyo to the west. It has 30,000 inhabitants and 100 wine bodegas. Its streets are the tree shaded boulevards, which are the characteristic of Mendoza.

One of its most distinctive places is the Historical House Museum. It is a building complex athat has a Colonial style museum, an oil factory, the old Barriales Mill, the traditional Bodega Orfila, which dates back to the first years of the Twentieth century, and a sanctuary in honour of San Cayetano, the patron saint, who is worshipped during the first week of August, besides the mansion itself built by the Libertador San Martin.

We can also try typical dishes and watch beautiful bare-footed young ladies trample grapes in high casks for the Vendimia. You cannot miss this folkloric festivity.
We can get to reach this town driving along a road under the shade of trees on each side. Surrounded by vineyards, olive trees and fruit plantations, we will visit here the Benegas Dam, on the Tunuyan River course. It offers you the possibility of practicing sport fishing on rainbow trout, perch and the so-called arroyos.

LA PAZ

It is the easternmost of all departments in Mendoza and its gate door, as you come from Buenos Aires. It is an extensive but hardly inhabited territory.

It offers the traveller a regional history museum which was inaugurated in 1999 and has a hall-room exhibiting farming tools donated bythe local families. We can also find there the old railway phone, and the Morse system telegraphic equipment that was used in the station.

There is a photographic exhibition of the first families that settled in La Paz, the first streetcar, which dates back to 1940, an 1820 farm wagon pole, and a stone mortar to grind wheat. There is an area dedicated to the Vendimia Winemaking Festival Queens and the Department Overseers.

RIVADAVIA

About 60 kms from the City of Mendoza along National Routes N° 7 and N° 40, and Provincial Routes N° 16, N° 62, N° 67 and N° 71, it has 50,000 inhabitants, mostly living in the country. It is an agro industrial area that grows grapes and melons.

The El Carrizal Dam
An obligatory tour. To reach it go along National Route N° 40 in the direction of Rivadavia, and when you reach the village of Ugarteche, take Provincial Route N° 16.

It is on the Tunuyan River on a plain surrounded by the arid mountains of "Las Huayquerias del Carrizal" and the Los Huarpes lowlands.

It is built of stone, earth and clay, and it fills a water mirror fifteen kms long by four kms wide. The eastern shore belongs to Rivadavia, where you will find 12 fishing and yacht clubs, and the western shore belongs to Lujan de Cuyo which has eight clubs and tourist recreation complexes.

It is an optimal place to fish for sweet water atherine and to practice almost all water sports: yachting, windsurfing, water scooters, canoeing, water ski and camping. They also organize walks and horse riding in nice countryside areas. The Derivation dam Tiburcio Benegas is close by.

It has a splendid swimming pool, several restaurants and a Food Court where we can try regional and international gastronomic specialties, with good Mendoza wine.

The weather is dry and temperate with Mountain vegetation surrounding the place. It has an all-year tourist season.

Nearby there is an as an oilfield waiting to be unexploited.