Arroyo El Sauce Stream
It is an excursion bordering the southern sector of the town in a 34 kilometer radius, finely embroiled by some green field spots and impressive mountain ridge fragments. The stream offers two enviable possibilities for picnicking: The Patio de los Correa and the Camping Municipal. They are four and five kilometers away from the urban center, respectively.

Parque Provincial Tupungato Park
All that is needed to get to this National Reserve is to start from Tupungato and travel towards the Tunas and Santa Clara gorges. It comprises 150,000 hectares that protect an important sector of the Central Andes. Some of the rivers, bathing and caressing exceptionally beautiful landscapes on their Mendoza's trajectory, are originated here.

The park possesses a flora and fauna characteristic of the Upper Andean valleys: condors, eagles, guanacos and foxes. But the most outstanding and transcendent feature is the presence of the glaciers and the currently extinct and torn Tupungato volcano, along with the Tupungatito and the Bravard (5,913 meters above sea level) volcanoes.

Its mountain routes are very old. The International Pass of Tupungato, at 4,800 meters above sea level, leads to the Rio Colorado river and to Santiago de Chile. Mountaineering and trekking are practiced in its surroundings.

Cerro Aconcagua Mountain
Starting at Tupungato, trekking, horse riding, and ascensions to the Aconcagua mountain, are also organized. There are permanent excursions from November through March.


Manzano Histórico Apple Tree
35 kilometers away from Tupungato, taking the Ruta Nacional Nº 89, and standing at a road junction, a space with a dazzling beautiful landscape appears before the eyes of the traveler: the Manzano Histórico (Historic Apple Tree), at 1,200 meters above sea level.

At the center of the town stands the General Don Jose de San Martin Monument, to honor his return to Argentina by the Andean pass, after his independence campaigns in Chile and Peru. To the left stands a sprout from the historic tree.

Towards the mountain ridge, a dirt road crosses the Arroyo Grande watercourse, with its many tributaries streams coming down from the mountains. In one of those streams is the Paso del Portillo de Pluquenes pass, at 4,030 meters above sea level, leading to Santiago de Chile through the Yeso and Maipo rivers.

The roads leading travelers to the Manzano Histórico are wild and imposing, and offer numerous natural spots to enjoy camping at their sides and are traveled by Andinists and salmon fishermen.

Over the banks of the two main streams, Las Pircas and Grande, originated by the waters of the melting glaciers, there are establishments that will delight the visitor.

Los Manantiales Springs
Standing at the foot of the Cordón del Portillo, this is a place holding a small yet important and dynamic ski center. It can be reached from the Manzano Histórico through a road still under construction. It has a large skiing surface with good quality snow. There are beautiful camping areas in the surroundings. There are lodging facilities; and trekking and horse riding trips through the Paso del Portillo pass are organized.

SAN CARLOS

100 kilometers away from the Capital City, a small location stands before the eyes of the traveler, one where the personality of the groves stands out, along with the sunflower fields and, of course, the San Carlos vineyards. It is the administrative site of the department. It was founded in the year 1934, and is also amply renowned for its extended ranches where, under the imposing mountain ridge's tutelage, horse taming and mastering, along with different rural tasks can be enjoyed.

Its commercial axis runs alongside its main road: Eugenio Bustos, where commercial activity and lodging facilities are concentrated. The Casa de Gobierno, the police station and the church of San Carlos Borromeo are sitting around the main plaza.

San Carlos is ideal for travelers. In its surroundings, motor biking, hang gliding, paragliding, trekking, sport fishing and Andinism can be practiced.

It preserves, besides, the ruins of an architectonic jewel that gives the city prestige and historic importance: the Fuerte San Carlos fort. It was one of the first built in the province. It was organized over the base of a series of small forts built in 1782, which where raised to protect it from the indigenous incursions.

In this place sits the picturesque Museo Histórico Municipal museum. Here one can appreciate not only the remains of the fort, but those of the old church as well. Indigenous pottery is on exhibition, and it holds the cross and the baptismal font of the primitive San Carlos Borromeo church.

San Carlos also offers the traveler the Museo de las Ciencias Naturales museum, located inside the Complejo Cultural complex, over the Ruta Nacional Nº 40. Birds, fishes, mammals and reptiles from all over the country are exhibited here. It also offers fishing streams and thermal waters in La Salada or Baños de Capiz.