Villavicencio

Villavicencio is known to every Argentine from the label on a mineral-water bottle, which shows the hotel that stands in this valley: a grand spa built in the 1940s around the springs, closed since the 1970s and preserved as a landmark rather than a working hotel, with gardens, a chapel and a visitor centre alongside. The reserve around it covers some seventy thousand hectares climbing from desert scrub to high mountain, protecting guanacos, foxes, condors and a range of vegetation zones. Above the hotel the old road to Uspallata, known as the Caracoles de Villavicencio, climbs in a long series of hairpin bends, said to number in the hundreds, to the Cruz de Paramillos at over three thousand metres.

What you actually see

• The old spa hotel - the closed 1940s building from the water label.
• The Caracoles - the switchback road climbing above the valley.
• The reserve - vegetation zones from desert scrub to high mountain.
• The wildlife - guanacos, foxes and condors along the route.

When to go

October to April; the upper road can close with snow in winter and the reserve restricts access in bad weather. Mornings are best for wildlife and clear air. Summer afternoons bring storms that make the gravel road hazardous.

Honest expectations

The hotel is closed and can only be seen from outside. The road above is unsealed, narrow and slow, and continuing to Uspallata takes several hours. The reserve charges an entry fee and has limited services, and fuel should be filled before leaving Mendoza.

Nearby

Mendoza city lies southeast; the road over the top descends to Uspallata.