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Other entries in Mendoza

wha'? You said wha'?

I´m cold.

I´m deaf in one ear.

My muscles ache. All of them.

And there´s noone here to give me a massage :(


But I have some great photos of the Andes :)

I was sleeping soundly this morning, it was very dark outside and there was no noise from reception (everyone must have gone to bed) and I was just thinking how easy it would be to fall asleep when my alarm went off. What a joke! But no, I had to get up before the sun, so I could wait for half an hour in reception for a bus

On the plus side, we were off to Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas and pretty much outside Tibet, Nepal, India and China!

The view from the bus, as we headed west towards Chile, at sunrise was breath taking - one of the best sights of this trip! It´s a crying shame the bus wouldn´t stop (I asked) so I could take a photo. Guess you´ll have to come here yourself!

It stayed spectacular well after we arrived in the foothills and started ascending through the trees, then scrub, then icy patches of rock, then snow... and it was about then I realised that I wasn´t quite wearing the correct clothing. By the time we reached 3000m and Puente del Inca, the snow was up to my ankles (past the top of my shoes), the drifts either side of the trail were waist high and I couldn´t see my legs as it was snowing so hard, I realised I would have been better off with my skis and goggles :P

But the weather brightened, and we were able to tour the possible end of the inca trail that starts in Peru... Puente del Inca is a natural bridge and hot springs, twenty odd metres above a small river on the way across the andes. It gets its name from an Inca legend about a great chief and his sick son. The chief had heard of the healing powers of the thermal waters in the south lands, and set off with his son and best warriors to find them. After a long journey they came to the springs, however there was a torrent of water blocking their way. The warriors quickly made a human bridge and the chief was able to carry his son safely across. But when the chief turned to thank the warriors, they had been turned to stone and this is why the bridge is the colour of the Inca`s skin.

Perched upon and next to the bridge are the ruins of a colonial hotel built in 1925. The hotel was all but destroyed by an avalanche in the sixties, with the exception being the chapel, where the staff and guests were hiding and miraculously managed to escape harm. Each room in the hotel had it´s own private hot spring bath and you can still see the remains of these today. Quite a speccy sight :)

And unfortunately our last for the day, as the weather worsened and we couldn´t see Aconcagua for the snow :(

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