CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Luis de la Cruz and Goyeneche made in 1806 areconnaissance trip commissioned by the Chilean authorities and the Viceroyaltyof the Río de la Plata. In the early nineteenth century, it was propitiated thesearch for a more direct route between Buenos Aires and south-central Chile, inorder to improve business activity, through unknown territories inhabited bythe Indians. Here we analyze the route in the territory of the present provinceof Neuquén. He entered through the Pichachén pass, also known as boquete de Antuco, and followed thecourse of the Reñileuvú river on its southern bank to its mouth in the Neuquénriver. Then he headed south, crossing Treuco, passing the Caicayén hill andTruquicó to reach the confluence of the rivers Curi Leuvú and Neuquén. Hisjourney continued to Auquinco and from there through the vega of Tril, north to Coboleuvú. Along the way he describeddifferent lithologies and in several localities made references to diverse petrifiedshells, as well as trunks and large vertebrate fossils. These preciseobservations represent the first geological and paleontological records ofNeuquén, which modify some previous statements in the geological literature ofthe Neuquén Basin and setback for many years the fossiliferous findings of thisregion of what is now Argentina, in those days still part the Viceroyalty ofRio de La Plata.