La Payunia (El Payén)

Payunia is a 450- 000 hectare nature reserve with lava fields stretching out to the horizon. La Pasarela delimits the park, where the emerald green Rio Grande has forced its way through solid volcanic rock. Beyond the river is a striking black landscape of volcanic gravel cut by brush strokes of red minerals, swaths of sprouting yellow grass, yardang erosion rock features and, of course, volcanoes.

In fact, Payunia has the highest concentration of volcanic cones in the world. A recent survey by Corina Risso of the University of Buenos Aires puts the total around 800, although there are likely more. It was the turbulent nature of these volcanoes that created Payunia's astounding scenery – at times resembling some far-distant planet, at others offering a glimpse of what our own planet may have looked like in its beginnings.