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Leaving the city of Mendoza heading south is possible in two ways. The fast one is on the Ruta 40 and the beautiful one on the small streets passing the vineyards to Ugarteche. From Ugarteche you head south on Ruta 40 until arriving in the small village Pareditas. The fast alternative is a trip of one and a half hour and is 123 km/77 mi long. The other one depends of the different vines you to taste.

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From Pareditas you have three different alternatives to drive to El Sosneado. They depend of the car that you are using:

1. The comfortable way is along Ruta 143 to San Rafael and later on Ruta 144 to Ruta 40. This route is fully paved and you can drive it with any car.

2. The classic route is along Ruta 40 to the junction with Ruta 144. For this route I recommend the use of a 4×4 SUV/Pickup. But you can still drive this 114 km / 71 mi with a car not exciding a speed of 40 km/h / 25 mi/h. (Duration about 3 to 4 hours).

3. For the adventure route a 4×4 SUV/Pickup is necessary. The distance of this trip is about 155 km / 95 mi. (Duration about 5 to 6 hours).

I have preferred the adventure to enjoy the beautiful landscape of the Andes mountains. But you must be prepared. In Pareditas you should refuel because there you’ll find the last petrol station until El Sosneado and check the oil gauge, etc.

As we left the village Pareditas on Ruta 40 we didn’t find the Ruta 101. We knew that the dirt road Ruta 40 heads straight ahead and the paved road Ruta 143 turns a little bit left and is paved. But we didn’t find Ruta 101. So we turned back to the police station and asked.

The first question back was: “Do you have a good car?” and as I showed the policeman our Toyota Hilux pickup 4X4 he said “Ok, with this car you can drive along the Ruta 101! Drive some 200 m/yards on the Ruta 40 and turn right and at the next corner turn left. That is Ruta 101 and leads you to El Sosneado. You will need between 5 to 6 hours to arrive!”

After turning on Ruta 101 we had a very long straight part in front of us. There was a lot of dust, not only in front of us, also behind of us and the pickup blewed it all up. We entered into the southern part of the Province of Mendoza. But this dirt road was in very good conditions and allowed to speed up to 60 km/h (38 mph). First it seemed to become boring because the landscape was flat, no mountain, no Andes, only flat land. After some 20 km (14 mi) we made the first stop on a hill to enjoy the landscape. In front of us the road, at the right a marvelous panorama view of the Andes and behind us the dust. This was the first impressive panorama view we had of the Andes in southern Mendoza.

Later we saw in front of us a small village with trees. It was Los Alamitos with its Alamos trees.

Then after another long straight road we met some horses in a creek beside the road. The Andes in the background gave us another great view. From now the road had more curves and a different landscape.

A tip: There are no traffic signs, no houses, and no cell phone worked and we had no GPS and one problem was coming up: How to find the right way? The easy way is to follow always the broadest or the most used road. You can identify that like the Indians in the Westerns, only look for the tracks.

Another difficulty is that you have to be careful. It is always possible that an animal is crossing the road, maybe goats, cows, horses or even lamas.

You will meet nice places for a coffee break beside a creek with water so clean, that you can drink it.

Sometimes the road is so narrow that you have to honk before a curve. That is law! But nobody is controlling it. On that trip of 154 km (96 mi) we didn’t meet any other car on the road.

We crossed Arroyo Hondo (Hondo Creek) and the extinct Volcano Cerro Diamante came in sight. The road became more narrow and poor. Sometimes we had to speed down to walking speed, but the landscapes and Río Diamante near the village La Jaula recouped us therefore.

Now the landscape changed a little bit. Instead of a desert we saw more green grass. We arrived in the center of the Pampa Diamante. The precipitations from the Andes reachs this zone. More in the north Mendoza is different.

You also can observe some impressing geological formations beside the road. Suddenly a very small and steep way down to a creek and once more up on a hill and we saw a symbol of the modern times. An oil pump driven by a diesel motor was nodding and pumping up crude oil out of the earth. Some 5/3 more kilometers/miles and we were back to civilization and this beautiful, different trip of 5 hours on the nearest road to the Andes ended in El Sosneado.

We were back on Ruta 40 and headed some 48 km (30 mi) to Los Molles near Las Leñas were a great dinner cooked by our friend Adolfo was waiting for us. We spent the night in a Cabaña in the Los Molles Complejo Turístico.