Staying at any Mendoza’s 5 Stars Hotel provides a convenient location if you want to spend a day in Lavalle. Full of natural and cultural value, this town and its neighboring areas offer quite a show for whoever wants to see it.

Lavalle is not only one the central departments of Mendoza province, it is also the place chosen by the Huarpes communities to settle. In fact, these native tribes preserve most of their ancient customs and traditions. That makes the town of Lavalle worlwide known for its cultural tourism, traditions and religious festivals.

Year after year, this village holds celebrations like the Fiesta de la Asunción (Feast of the Assumption), in August and the famous festival of Lagunas Del Rosario (Rosario’s Lagoons) in October. These festivities are specially enjoyed by the attendants, who witness religious ceremonies and artistic performances. Regional meals and the most exquisite wines are the perfect hostfor the party. In your tour over Lavalle you can visit the Historic Chapel, the Regional Museum and the House of the Beekeeper.

Not far away from the town, in the convergence of San Juan and Mendoza Rivers, you can reach the Lagunas de Huanacache (Huanacache´s Lagoons) and the Bosque Telteca (Telteca Woods). Desert sand takes over the landscape and make it difficult to think that they actually existed for a millennium, in a balanced ecosystem of ponds and wetlands, with abundant fish, waterfowl, guanacos and rheas, where lived a huge aboriginal population.

The flow of the lakes decreased simultaneously with the growth of the cultivated land. In fact, the environment was deeply modified until the lakes finally dried up in 1960. It was the arrival of immigrants and the innovation in the irrigation systems what caused that alteration. Nowadays the native fauna has completely vanished, as well as the ancient forests of carob, leading to large undulating dunes, which occupy the land between the rivers that were once torrential.

That is the reason why the Telteca Woods is a protected area that covers 20,400 hectares, dedicated to protect the flora and fauna of the part. It is a forest of ancient carobs, symbols of an ecosystem that occupied large tracts of territory in the province. The main purpose of this protected area is to save the lives of some animal and plant species that are currently in danger. Its typical fauna are parrots, parakeets, plovers, vizacachas, cougars and foxes.

Only a day is necessary to go to Lavalle and discover the Telteca Woods and the Rosario’s Lagoons. Just a few kilometers away from Mendoza and the 5 Stars Hotel, this natural paradise is waiting for you.