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Published: September 15th 2009
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So with some hesitation we decided to book another all day high mountain pass bus tour... I refused to book it with the hostel and went to a travel agent recommended by an Australian couple we met at the spa. It turned out to be a great choice. Most of the bus was Argentinians but many of them spoke English. There were some surly Germans in the back but they mostly kept to themselves.
It was another early departure and we were heading into the foothills of the mountains as the sun rose over the valley. The Andes are absolutely breathtaking. Here there´s much more vegetation than in Salta and the road follows the Mendoza River for most of the trip. The bus went along highway 7 which is the official road to Chile. We stopped first to look at a huge damn reservoir which they told us had been made about 10 years ago and many families had to be relocated when they flooded the valley. We then continued along the road for another hour or so. The road followed the Mendoza river and the old train tracks. There are tons of abandoned train stations and track side buildings.
Everything was just left to disintegrate.
We pulled into a small town Upsallata where we picked up our ¨snow gear¨for the day. Some really old snow pants and boots that required plastic bags for ¨waterproofing¨. All the Argentinians got parka jackets as well. We also rented some slides which were basically a seat with a joy stick attached. They don´t have as sophisticated tobogganning equipment as back home I guess ahhah...
From there we headed straight up the mountain and stopped at a small ski hill for some sliding. For Canadian standards it was a pretty pathetic sliding hill but the Argentinians were convinced it was practically Everest. Of course, we Canadians showed them how to do it and jumped right on the slide and headed down the hill. Leah had rented a longer flat slide and went down on her front - the bus group thought she was absolutely insane! We then helped some of the others try their slides plus had a few races. There was a fun Argentinian couple that were pretty keen on racing down with us several times. I nearly bust a gut laughing at all these Argentinians trying toboganning for the first
time. They were screaming and laughing - it was hillarious. Two girls on the bus had had chemical peals on their faces the day before and didn´t want their faces getting any sun so they wrapped their heads in scarves and wore sun glasses (I´ll put up a picture when I have a chance). They looked absolutely ridiculous!
We continued up the road and got our first glimpse of Aconcagua Mountain (5th highest in the world?) as we headed to the Chilean/Argentina border. We stopped at the border for pictures and took funny pictures of the scarf girls pretending to cross the border. From there we returned to the starting point for the trek to Aconcagua. Because of the snow we were not able to see the lake at the base of the mountain but the view was still amazing. Leah was pretty upset that she couldn´t go hiking but it was definitely closed for the season. November is the earliest you can start trekking apparently.
Next stop was lunch where we chatted up a few more of the Argentinians on the bus. The people here are so friendly and love hearing about where we´ve been and telling
us about life here.
Our last stop of the day was an old thermal spa spot that had been found by the Incans. It was an area with natural thermals where the calcium and sulphur deposits have made formations over the river.
From there we headed back to Mendoza watching the sunset over the mountains. It was a great day meeting lots of people and seeing the mountains. We got back pretty late and headed for dinner nearby. We also needed to book our bus and accommodations for Bariloche. We were planning to go vineyard touring the next day before our bus... Drinking before busing makes you sleep better right?
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