Day 68: October 21, 2007 Catamarca to San Juan

  San Juan, Argentina
Sunday, October 21, 2007

Day 68: October 21, 2007 Catamarca to San Juan

Remarkably, I slept almost all the way to San Juan. Elena awoke me once complaining of a sore throat and saying she hadn't slept. I gave her a couple of aspirin and she fell asleep pretty quickly. I soon followed. When I awoke again, we were just east of Caucete, the site of the large 1976 earthquake caused by uplift on the Sierra de Pie de Palo, just east of San Juan. The morning sky was crystal clear, something I had never seen around Pie de Palo. Usually, there is a lot of dust in the air from winds blowing across the desert. The bus drove through kilometer after kilometer of vineyards and olive orchards. Elena remarked on how green everything looked. I told her that it was all from water robbed from the Río San Juan for irrigation. Naturally, the river dried up in the desert so it really isn't much of a robbery. The river is extremely impressive as it cuts through an 80-km long canyon through the Precordillera just west of the city. A new dam, flooding a large portion of the canyon, is scheduled to open this year after many years of construction.

Río San Juan Gorge

I am thankful I got to drive through the canyon several times before construction began. The first time was in 1984. I rode in the back of the NSF pickup while Terry Jordan drove. It was my first ride over a winding, precipitous, dirt road through the Andes. I had had a nightmare about such a ride as a teenager, so it was cathartic to enjoy such a great ride. Ken Tabbutt and I did it again in 1985, in La Tortuga. The last time I did it was a round trip on a field trip during the 1991 Congreso of the Asociación Geológica Argentina that was held in San Juan.

The final half hour of the ride was uneventful. We entered the city and drove to the terminal. I am always impressed by the canopy over the eucalyptus-lined streets and wide sidewalks, a major contrast with Salta. It comes with a price, though. The sidewalks are dangerous. Pits half a meter deep surround almost every tree and half meter deep irrigation ditches line the curbs and sometimes cross the sidewalks. It is a hazard-filled walk for the unwary.

The reason San Juan appears so much more spacious is that it is! The city was almost completely destroyed by the 1944 earthquake. Salta's last major, city-leveling quake was in 1692. It was during the rescue effort after the disaster that Evita met Juan Peron. San Juan was rebuilt completely on the ruins of the old city. There are no surviving colonial structures and few 19th century structures still exist. Even so, San Juan is a great city to be in. I've always enjoyed its ambiance and the friendliness of the people.

We arrived at the terminal right on time at 7:30. I looked for Silivia Palacios, my friend since 1989. She and I worked on a project near the San Juan-Mendoza border with Felisa Berkowski. We never finished with project because 1) the area turned out to have a lot of faulting, which is hard to resolve without independent isotopic ages, and 2) both Silvia and I ended up having a falling out with Felisa. Subsequently, I learned that this happened with almost all of her students and colleagues. Guillermo Figueroa was an exception.

Silvia wasn't there so we took a cab to the Jardin Petit Hotel on 25 de Mayo. We got a small room off the street overlooking a nice courtyard with a small swimming pool. We went to the comedor for breakfast. Silvia called and came over to join us. It turns out she was at the terminal having coffee because the Andesmar guy told her our bus would be half an hour late. She did not receive a text I had sent her because I had made an error when entering her number.

We let Elena get some sleep while we went across the street to a small minimall and bought her some antibiotics. I also needed to get a surge supressor and a new pen drive for my computer. The pen drive place was closed and none of the surge supressors would fit my current converter. Silvia suggested that we go to a new mall near her mother's house. The place was huge. We found a supressor but no pen drive. She suggested that we stop by her mother's place on Las Heras, where Silvia lives, for coffee. I hadn't seen her mother since 1991. We had a pleasant conversation and then we went back to the hotel, agreeing to meet again for dinner.

Elena was up and watching TV. I gave her the antibiotics and laid down, falling asleep quickly. I woke up around noon. We were both hungry so we went across the street to the minimall and had a hamburguesa/lomito for lunch. The pen drive place was open so I got some cash from an ATM and bought a 1 GB drive for about $35.

We returned to the hotel. I read while Elena watched TV. We both fell asleep again but then woke up and continued doing what we were doing before. It was hot outside so we enjoyed the lazy afternoon.

Silvia arrived at 9:15. I introduced her to Elena, presented her with a Chico Bag, and then we drove around looking for an open restaurant on a Sunday evening. We found one we liked just northwest of the loop highway that circumnavigates the city. We ate pizza and hamburguesa at a table out on a lawn. It was warm. Silvia and I got caught up since we last saw each other in 2001. She told me that our mutual friend, Juan Pablo Milana, had recently climbed Everest but was thwarted in reaching the summit on the final day of ascent. Juan Pablo is a world-class guy. He already has a dinosaur named after him, Jachalsaurus milanensis. He discovered it about 10 years ago near the town of Jáchal, 150 km north of here. Afterward, Silvia returned us to the hotel. We agreed to meet for dinner tomorrow.

Elena and I went up to the room. She watched TV while I finished my book. I went to sleep around 12:30 while she watched the end of "Lord of the Rings II".