NORTHEASTERN CIRCUIT

THE DIQUE SAN FELIPE DAM
It stands 155 kms from San Luis. This is an important water reservoir that catches the waters of the Conlara River. It stores 81.3 million cubic meters of water, irrigating 13,000 has of land and delivering electricity to all the towns in the area. On its huge water mirror, nautical sports and the fishing of atherines are very common practice. The access is easy from La Toma and Naschel. They have a camping site close by.

THE CONCARAN VILLAGE
Typical village of the Province, and one of the oldest as well. Along with the towns of Renca and Santa Rosa, it is homeland to some of the most prominent families in the region. Access is through the No 148 National Route and its altitude is about 600 m.a.s.l. Some few kms away is located the first tungsten mine of South America and ten kms away is the most important deposit of wolfram in the country. The Mine is Los Cóndores, and it provided the Province with great wealth during World War II. In order to exploit it, pits and galleries were excavated with a length of 800 m, along with many ventilation outlets, also used to extract the ores. Finally, some pits reached more than 250 m deep into the ground, which was exciting in those days. ¿Do you care to see more small villages? They will arrange the tour.

SANTA ROSA DEL CONLARA
Travelling down the Nation Route No 148 and then taking the Provincial No 5, at 150 kms distance from San Luis, you will find the mythical Santa Rosa de Conlara. This small town was born at the beginnings of the 19th century, beside the Chapel of Santa Rosa de Lima, on the lands that were owned by the Captain Manuel Antonio Salazar.

The Village shows a well-ordered and defined layout. There are some showy old big houses that belong to the late 19th century, among which stands out the neo-gothic shape of the church tower.There is a very beautiful beach resort at the banks of the Conlara River, a watercourse with the singularity that it flows northwards ¿Can you believe it? The traveller will here find some barbecue pits and a pleasant hostelry.

Santa Rosa also offers a splendorous and picturesque highlands environment. ¿Who doesn't in this part of the country? Clear waters flow in the shapes of rivers, falls and streams. Its all happeningl under a privileged climate that turns the area into a place where nature can be found in its purest state. One of the excursions that arouse more enthusiasm is the one that goes to the La Huertita Reservoir, 79 kms away. There waits to be seen a water mirror in the midst of the Comechingones Highlands, with their bluish and ochre tones.

BAJO DE VELIZ
From Santa Rosa de Conlara it is easy to access Bajo de Véliz. This is an excursion only for the adventurous type, along a 24 kms of a small uneven road. For this reason, it is recommended that the visitor travels in the area aboard a four wheel drive vehicle that will carry him across its colourful landscape among impressive rock walls covered by plants.

Bajo de Veliz is a profound and narrow depression of some 12 kms length and an area of around 600 has. Follow the road along the Cabeza de Novillo Stream North to South. When it changes its name to Cautana, you will know you have arrived to a National Park.

There is in the area a prodigious slate quarry, a kind of a slab stone that locals unearth with pickaxes and steel bars and thus transform it in roof or floor tiles.

The outcropping is said to be approximately 300 million years old. In it there have been some animal and flora fossil findings of paramount importance. The stony remains of the biggest spider that crawled in the world, along with the living presence of the African Guayacán tree, which is called "the tree of life", a unique species in all the region, are some of the treasures that this village has to show the tourist.

The Town has a school in which the Visitors Center can be found. The tour of this area is called "La Ruta de la Pizarra" or "The Slate Route". There are no lodgings available along this Route's extension, so the prudent traveller will surely reserve rooms in the hostelry near Santa Rosa del Conlara or in Merlo, at 20 kms from this place.

MERLO
At 196 kms from the City of San Luis, by the National Routes numbers 20 and 148, an then over Provincial Route No 5, in the extreme of the Province appears, green and peaceful, a renowned village that seems to be sliding down the feet of the Sierra de los Comechingones: Merlo

The town was officially founded on in the year of 1797, on behalf of the orders given by the Marquis Rafael de Sobremonte, to honour the Viceroy Pedro de Melo. Although a small town organized on the grounds that surrounded the old chapel of Nuestra Señora del Rosario which already existed before the foundation and is still standing today.

Merlo is an important target for visitors. situated between the Divisadero and El Tren Mountains, it benefits from an excellent micro-climate whose origin lays in the fact that the highlands cut the pass to the wet air currents that come from the Atlantic Ocean, as well as all the smog and other contaminants that these currents pick up on their way across the damp "Pampas" as the Argentinean plains are called.

In addition to this feature, we have to consider that the electrical charges of the rocks in the Sierra de los Comechingones are very low, and as a result, the negative ionisation that catches the oxygen atoms freed by the decomposing granite are transformed into ozone.

If we put together the existence of ozone, the lack of humidity and the little or none contaminant agents, the scarce altitude of only 890 m above sea level and a average temperature of some 20 °C, the resultant equation is a dry weather that produces a healthy sensation of pleasantness among its regular dwellers and to visitors too.

The village offers four different tour circuits covering an area with a 200 kms radio, allowing the traveller to go around, know and enjoy the country labours in the ranches and farms, watch the craftsmen in practice, the mines, the reservoirs and also practice ailing. For all these activities, Merlo is equipped with as many as 6,000 hotel beds.

Inside the City itself, the traveller will find two casinos, if he is tired of so much nature: The Dos Venados and the Chumamaya. From the installations of the last, also a camping club, the traveller can enjoy one of the better panoramic sights of the village. Also available are tours by car, on horseback or on foot across the picturesque surroundings and highlands waiting to be turned into postcards.

Festivities: "Fiesta Nacional del Valle del Sol" on the first days of February