On the road to the Andes we met Paco...

We found it hard to tear ourselves away from Buenos Aires after 2 weeks of western comfort. The last couple of days in the city allowed us to settle in and I (Irene) realised that my previous blog on BA's impressions may have been slightly critical. Without a doubt.. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city.

Still eager to see the countryside, we headed west towards the border of Mendoza - the wine region (whose wine should no doubt be coming to a Sainsbury´s shelf near you!!). Along the way we visited Che Guevarra´s former family home and spent two days in a luxurious Estancia in the middle of a peaceful valley horseriding and swimming. This is where we met Don Pepe and Paco - two horses who .. let's just say ... made the afternoon very memborable. We learnt to say "Vamos Paco" and "Ssshh/Stop Pepe" in so many different tones in order to be obeyed. Though mostly it was my horse Pepe who obeyed Bruno´s commands to encourage his horse Paco to move.

Since then, we've passed through small townships at the bottom of the Andes next to the Aconcagua. We timed it well: Uspallata was celebrating its centenary anniversary with a free open-air music performance. It's amazing how one can both swim in an open pool as well as walk at the foot of the snowy Aconcagua mountain with layers of clothing, all in the same week in the same country. Then finally a small community before the border - Puente del Inca (the location of the film "Seven years in Tibet" ) the base for treks to Aconcagua..

The crossing between Argentina & Chile was an amazing sight of white snowy Andean mountains, with dark and arid land at the bottom. As we slowly descended once again, it felt like our bus was tiny next to these majestic peaks. This area stretching from Portillo at the border is apparently a popular Chilean skiing resort though it is succesfully disguised in its 1960's soviet architecture... Once we reached the valley, the landscape changed to lusher and greener pastures of rolling fields intermittently covered with bright yellow bushy flowers; there was the water gushing on the river from the mountains; there are horse grazing and log cabins which probably become holiday homes during the summer months. We settled to a 3 hour bus ride towards Santiago, always reminded of where we were by the Andean mountains in the background. The sight was tonic to my itchy and tired eyes from the dusty plaines and the blinding sun.

We started to realise just how long Chile is: one can go on for hundreds, even thousands of miles! It does make travel easier to see the country from top to bottom or vice versa. For instance: Santiago is roughly in the middle of Chile but it is 4 hours flying to Punta Arenas in the far South! More of that on our next blog..

---

---