If your idea of having a good day is to go relax or do activities in the mountains of San Juan, going to the Zonda ravine is one of the most recommended options. These dry, orange mountains have options of all types and difficulties, from demanding trekking to a camping base with a pool to cool off a little. If you ask me, what I like most is to be on the move, so as soon as I could, I dedicated myself to exploring which trails I could walk on and that's how I found the one that in my opinion was the easiest of all: the one that led to the famous "Indian's Head" .

The Zonda ravine is a mountainous landscape that extends for about four kilometers, so you can easily reach one of its ends, next to which a greenish valley extends. Many people come to this place with the idea of seeing the beginning of the mountain range and there you can find a small trekking with an ascent to have more beautiful views of the entire area. The good thing is that this trail is prepared for tourists and even has stairs for easier access ❤️.

Despite the stairs and the shortness of this path, you still had to take your time so as not to lose your breath. As we climbed, the sunlit mountains decorated our landscape. I also liked that it is an easy and well-prepared trail so that many visitors can reach it ❤️.

When we first started the climb, we saw a sign indicating that this trail was called "Seven Paths", but we didn't understand why until we were a little higher. Apparently, this path was originally some kind of level paths that went through some caves from one side to the other. Unfortunately, these trails had non-allowable signs, forcing you to climb the stairs until you reach the top .

At the end of this route you could find a large white cross, a paved beach and a beautiful view of the Zonda valley. Everything was very photographable from up there and most people just stayed here enjoying the landscape. But we were not one of those and since we still had a lot of energy, we walked a little more .

If you like to walk a little further, you can continue the path to your right along a fairly easy path but which may take a little time. The sign indicated that almost in the middle of the ravine was the Cabeza del Indio monument, so we went there .

The reality is that the whole hard part was just climbing the stairs up there, because the rest of the way was mostly flat. As we went along the ravine, we could see more and more caves appearing in the landscape. These caves were like small anthills in the immensity of the mountain, and each one was on a different path .

From there I could deduce that surely each of the seven paths that we had seen at the beginning would correspond to a different level of path with caves. As we climbed to the top of everything, we were traveling along the upper path. In reality, this was the only one that was apparently enabled, safe due to the constant risk of collapse in this area with constant seismic activity .

After a little more than 45 minutes of walking looking at the route below us, we began to approach what would be the famous monument. Something funny that happened to us is that on the billboard at the beginning there was no photo of the monument, so we expected to see a mountain shaped like an Indian. We clearly realized that this was not the case when we saw a white block appear in the middle of the orange landscape .

I must say that that day I did not find the shape of an Indian head on the monument, but in my subsequent visits to the Zonda ravine and seeing the monument from another angle, I knew that I did not take the photos correctly. So at that moment I thought "what imagination do you have to have to see the shape", but at least I was satisfied with the views from up there .

We thought we would get to the monument and that would be it, but to our surprise the path continued and continued. We, curious as always, continued until we were able to find a viewpoint with a good view of the abandoned racetrack. This racetrack has not been used for several years due to various accidents that occurred there, in addition to the fact that another larger and better racetrack was built in the province of San Juan. For now, only its nostalgic memory remains adorning the landscape .

Of course we continued and continued walking, but little by little we realized that the path did not seem to go down the mountain at any time. We had two options: retrace our steps to civilly descend the stairs, or descend "wildly" along an improvised path. I will leave it to your discretion which option my friends and I chose, considering that the sun was already setting and that it was very close to our return bus arriving .

I really liked having arrived in the province of San Juan and discovering in-situ all the things it has to do. I feel that this province does not have as much tourist promotion as others, but that it deserves it because it is beautiful. If you like trekking and hiking, here you can find endless routes of which you could never get bored. It was great to have spent our day there and with each place we visited, we fell more and more in love with this ravine ❤️.

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If there is one thing I'm grateful for choosing a slightly longer trip to the province of San Juan, it is that I had enough time to go explore a lot of beautiful landscapes. This province has landscapes for all tastes, and with just a short trip on public transportation you can get close to them and enjoy them. One of the most recommended places to go for a walk and see the mountains more closely is the Quebrada de Zonda, where you can climb a little, go trekking or even sit down for a while and rest. If you like this last option, the Garden of Poets is the perfect setting to spend the day relaxing in a unique green space in this area .

By just moving about 20 km from the city center you can reach the Quebrada de Zonda, even on a regular bus line. The walk there is also interesting, because you head directly towards the mountains until you get as close to them as possible and after turning left, you can travel through the entire ravine. But right at the entrance, before turning and at the foot of the mountains, is this green garden where you can have picnics in the shade of the trees ❣️.

This garden is called "poets' garden" because it has a route with sculptures of famous poets. Although some of them were deteriorated, most were in good condition as was the garden. Everything looked quite neat and green, so you could tell that they take care of watering it and keeping it in good condition. The province of San Juan is mainly dry and hot, so maintaining a place in these conditions must take constant work .

The garden also had a space with perfectly arranged bushes with cubic shapes. This part was also pretty and decorated the garden very well. All around there was a path to turn around and also to take a walk among the trees. Very picturesque and photographable ❣️.

Just in front of the garden is the path to a viewing point that looks directly into the garden. Since my friends and I like to be on the move, we decided to go up to see what views we had from there. The entrance to the trail started with stairs, and that was most of the way. Although they were a little deteriorated in parts, they fulfilled their function of taking you uphill well ❣️.

One might think that climbing a mountain with stairs is comfortable, but the truth is that it can be more tiring than if it didn't have them. In any case, the views we had from up there were very nice and worth it. That day was the first time we saw the Zonda Autodrome up close because we had it right next to the garden .

This racetrack is a mega construction located in the middle of the ravine, but unfortunately it is currently disused. Its history says that there were several accidents due to lack of organization, which led to distrust of this place. Later, another bigger and better racetrack was built just a few km from this place, so it ended up being completely abandoned. It is a real shame that this was their destination, but they also say that some curious people also come to do the circuit on a motorcycle or bicycle .

Finishing climbing to the viewpoint only took us about twenty minutes and from there we were able to have a complete view of the garden and everything we had been seeing below. From that height the contrast of colors of the garden and the ravine could be seen much better. You could also see, a little further in the background, one of the largest cement factories in this region, which extracts minerals from these mountains. What I liked most of all is the tranquility and silence it felt like to be up there, in addition to the great view ❣️.

Visiting the Los Peotas Garden was a good choice to spend an afternoon walking and also doing some exercise in the mountains. It is a good option to get a great look at the Zonda ravine and some of the things around it. And if you're wondering what was in the viewpoint, well, there was supposed to be the sculpture of the poet that guards the entire garden, but instead there was only a stone and no trace of the mysterious author. At least it served so we could go up there and sit down and take some good photographs .

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