Tours

Part of my adventure here in South America has been traveling solo for the first time. There are obviously advantages and disadvantages to having or not having traveling companions, and in the event that you find yourself on a solo mission, I'm here to tell you that it is possible to find reasonably priced group tours that aren't a total rip-off.
After day one it usually gets a little boring walking around with your head buried in a Lonely Planet book, and I wasn't going to hang out in wine bars for 2 straight days during my time in Mendoza. Always check your book to see if you can easily get to where you want to go on a public bus and that will save you a ton of cash. If not, then take a look at the tours that don't offer bilingual services or include lunch and you can usually find a pretty good deal. I did that twice, once on my trip to the South of Chile and again in Mendoza, and both times I spent the whole day immersed in Spanish without any English speakers and I packed a sandwich if we were going to be short on time, or took advantage of our empanadas lunch that we ordered very cheaply as a group and washed it down with a bunch of nuts, fruit, and other snacks that I brought with me for the ride. They were both quality tours with professional guides sponsored by smaller travel agencies at about half of what I would have paid for a large tour bus and an English speaking group.
While visiting Mendoza, I chose one of the "off the beaten path" destinations and visited the Cañon del Atuel, near San Rafael in the southern province of Mendoza. It's a long day of travel but a beautiful and unique place, and as I mentioned earlier, was my effort to be productive instead of spending two straight days of a Malbec induced haze.

When you're out in the middle of nowhere, these are the things you start to see...goats on the hill and pigs in the back of trucks

Heading into the canyon, I felt a little like I was in Arizona. We had many brief stops along the way where our guide pointed out the various rock formations. I was sitting in the front, so try to ignore the bad glass reflection in some of the pictures.

A chair, or whatever you see...

The Mount Rushmore of the canyon

astronaut

part of the beauty is the different colored rock formations

Rio Atuel

There are large hydroelectric facilities

When you approach the Valle Grande, that's where the real photo opps. begin. There are also opportunities for rafting, kayaking, canopy, etc. and facilities for camping and making it longer than a day trip.

I even got a shot of the full moon on the ride back to Mendoza