Aconcagua, Uspalleta Argentina

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Cerro Aconcagua is the highest mountain in South America at nearly 22,000 feet and is the largest outside of the Himalayes (thanks for the correction Juan!). Although both John and I are ¨technically¨mountaineers... we thought it would be best just to hike to base camp on this trip.

On Sunday we took a bus from Mendoza to Uspalleta which is a small town 100 km (approx 1 hr) from Aconcagua Provincial Park . Two and half hours later, after stopping in the middle of nowhere a dozen times, we found that we were the only ones left on the bus. What a surprise, we missed our stop! ha...nothing new i guess, fortunately we had only missed it by a couple miles so our bus driver was kind enough to drive us back.

Nothing like being totally unprepared. After 2hrs of walking around with all of our belongings strapped to our backs we finally found a vacancy (Hostel Portico del Valle) which oddly had a perfect view of the mountains... which ones- we have no clue!! We grabbed some lunch at a restaurant across from our place and were unpleasantly bitten by ravenous horseflies!!! As we sat there we watched people drive by in cars, tractor trailers, on scooters, four-wheelers, bicycles and horses!! I have been consistently impressed at how well kept the horses are here. All of them are well fed, exercised and clean! Oddly, there are few fences and you often find donkeys, cows, horses and sheep wandering around, even strolling the roads. No idea how the owners keep track of who belongs to whom.

On Monday, we grabbed a bus to Aconcagua Park and because again, we are so well planned ... we had to constantly ask the bus driver whether we were at the appropriate park or not. It was quite confusing because there were multiple groups of trekers that were getting off at other stops and suddenly we were the only trekers left...again! 2 hours later (which, by the way is how long it takes to go anywhere in south america, no matter how close it is) the driver dropped us off at the park entrance with no markings or bus stop, just a nice looking dirt road 😉

Mt. Aconcagua is incredible though!! We were at the South side of the mountain and hiked about 4hrs in and couldn´t believe how big Aconcagua really was. Generally as you hike towards a mountain... it gets bigger... but Aconcagua remained the same size as viewed from a distance. A band of horse and mule riders came by at one point to reclaim a stubborn mule who apparently ran away. We were also surprised to see melting remains of a glacier. We sat, had a bit of lunch and begain trekking back to the entrance. We sat for a few hrs waiting for a bus... but luckily were able to hitch a ride with a van of tourists who were also going back to Uspalleta. Our driver was a real comedian and a newly wed couple sitting next to us helped to interpret the spanish. It was pleasant end to the day and took less than an hour to get back into town! The next morning we were up early (for us), and back on a bus headed south...

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Comments

[Juan]

Little correction
Aconcagua isn´t the 2nd highest peek outside Himalaya. Is HIGHEST PEEK outside Himalayas.

[wvDrifters]

Thanks for the correction...
The blog has been updated with a shout out to Juan! Cheers! John and Chrissy

[Jacob]

Have you seen my mule??
Excellent photos and the volcano trip is priceless...who needs a souvenir when you have ice luge battle scars...the gift that keeps on giving. Obviously Chrissy's fear of heights is slowly diminishing. J