You have to travel 35 km from the center of Roque Pérez to get to Forastieri, along a sandy road of about 5 km that goes from RP30 to a small chapel where you begin to see this Paraje, with the charm of the green of the countryside and the blue of the sky.

The gas pump, long since out of service, bears the marks of countless stories. Around the corner stands an old warehouse—where it all began—and beyond, the school and the small hall.

Guillermo Arean was born and raised in the La Gloria area, very close to Forastieri, and his parents, uncles, and other relatives are from there. He says it's a very populated area, with about 300 people living within a 5km radius, and that Emilio Forastieri was the local grocer.

“People didn’t have much transportation and would arrive by horse-drawn cart or on horseback to shop, get together for a meal, or dance on weekends in a large corrugated iron hall that’s now destroyed, where a circus once performed. Two of the women who came with the circus stayed, and one married the store owner.

The area was actually called El Progreso, but everyone said, ‘Let’s go to Forastieri’s,’ and that’s how it got its name. Forastieri died, and his wife married the butcher around 1960, and that’s when people started calling the place Anacleto’s Bar. Even I used to go there dancing on Sundays in the 70s; it was the meeting place for young people. None of them are still there, and the heir to the property rented it out,” recounts Guillermo, who currently lives in Roque Pérez.

Encouraged by Guillermo's story and curious about the latest news from the area, this weekend we came across a surprise: the new El Progreso Country Store, which opened in the same place where the story began, in which they managed to combine gastronomy, tradition and community.

They say that every weekend, from late afternoon, the store transforms into a meeting point for neighbors and visitors who come to share a different kind of night, with authentic flavors and the same spirit of the old country stores that one finds throughout Roque Pérez.

Local artists and dance nights blend with typical Buenos Aires cuisine of barbecues, fried cakes, bread puddings and a glass of wine, which can be enjoyed outdoors or inside the large hall decorated with antique objects that tell its story.

“El Progreso,” says Marcelo, one of its owners, “was conceived with the idea of ​​preserving the essence of a small town, where the general store occupies its historical role as a social and cultural center.”

Marcelo had the dream of opening this bowling alley that brings life to Paraje Forastieri every weekend, together with his friends who participate in the project.

“We offer a barbecue menu with beef and pork, homemade charcuterie, pork shoulder, chorizo, bacon, tenderloin, sweet and savory homemade blood sausage, and head cheese.

We also serve some traditional country desserts, like flan, a good fruit salad, ice cream, and a nice cheese and jam. People come and stay for the afternoon, sitting and drinking mate under the trees, so we're thinking about adding more activities. We opened very recently and we feel that the public has been very supportive.

It was busy during La Noche de los Almacenes (Night of the General Stores), the biggest local festival in Roque Pérez, and then with the rural carnivals. We had a great response from the people of Forastieri and everyone in the area.”

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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