Mendoza

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G´day from Mendoza!!

After a night camping by a lake in St Luis (a swim in the evening, a swim in the morning ), we drove on to the lovely Mendoza region, well known for its wine - we are off to visit the bodegas today - and also for the nearby Andes cordillera and the highest peak outside the Himalayas, Aconcagua at 6962m. The first night we went out for steaks (huge!) with a group of Norwegians and Alaskans who had just climbed the peak. Apparently it is a very accessible mountain, the north route not technical, just the altitude which knocks a few out of the race! Guess where is next on my agenda! ))

So yesterday we went on a 7am-7pm tour, passing some absolutely stunning scenery, from the flat dry planes to lakes and dusty coloured earth mountains, right up to the snow covered mts of Aconcagua (the highest we got was just over 3000m though). The river we followed had vertical banks up to 120m high at some places! We saw the old railway, stopped by an ingenious museum on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and heard the story of San Martin who made the traverse through the mt range when he liberated Argentina and Peru from Spanish rule, as well as the history of how the Andes formed, and how to make light by rubbing together two quartz stones. Puenta del Inca was amazing - a naturally formed bridge with thermal waters giving the rock amazing colours. They sold sandals which had calcified in the waters! After Aconcagua, we traversed the tunnel to Chile (not normally a part of the tour, but especially for us ) before returning to Mendoza and our hostel here.

The hostel is lovely and relaxed, and we are planning to go either rafting or horseriding tomorrow after seeing the wineries, so we´ll be here a few more days. It´s also great meeting people and getting ideas on itineraries.

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