In Search for the Treasure

A Quest by the River

Charly, who has organized this excursion for several years and swears it is one of his favorite tours, had told us that the site was known as “The Petrified Logs” and that such a name responded to what we would be able to observe once the hunting started.

The hunting began at an old gravel quarry where everyone began to search for part of the treasure we had been told about in a perfect gemstone lesson given by our guide.

There we were, searching for agates, jaspers and petrified logs from the most typical trees in the area, even yatay palm trees, the most representative protagonists in El Palmar National Park.

Some of them used to be tropical fruit that turned into stones after a few million years and maintained their shape and color thus becoming real jewels, though their historical and natural value cannot and should not be measured in money.

The “hunting” was nothing more than getting into the river bank and walking about in search for rocks or fossils. Featuring various sizes, shapes and colors, each one of these beautiful stones is a track of the past, capable of providing us a perfect DNA sample of their formation and age.


Searching for them Inside the Museum

A few kilometers from the City of Colón lies the road leading to neighboring San José village.

Before reaching this spot, a sign anticipates: “Gemstones Museum”. Visitors must turn right and then travel along four hundred meters until they enter this real paradise.

There appears Selva Gayol, a magnificent reservoir of gemstones where visitors may find various kinds of stones and petrified logs that make up the geological formation of the Province of Entre Ríos.

Amidst these real works of art stands the famous rock known as “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf”, which shows at first sight the figure of the famous character incredibly carved by the forces of nature.

However, besides this famous stone, other equally beautiful and incredible designs appear before the visitors’ eyes. Many of them even hold water inside. Approaching this real center of interpretation of the past is totally worthwhile. Its owners manage to get visitors inside a time machine. They set the time of the journey to the times in which the entire geological formation of the region took place and then come back to the present to show some of their treasures.