I made a last minute booking on Sunday to join the "High Andes" tour - not really knowing what it was all about, but it was a full day tour and the name appealed.
After an early breakfast I was picked up around 7:30...The guide spoke English - a good start, considering at this point I appeared to be the only English person on the tour. We picked up a few more people, the grand total being 18, of which 2 were American, 3 (including myself) English and one Dutch guy, the rest were either from Brazil or Argentina.
The guide spoke a lot in Spanish which made me feel like I'd been ripped off a little - he seemed to explain something for 10 minutes in Spanish and then paraphrase in English for maybe 2 minutes...it didn't appear to be a good start however the English Speakers stuck together and we ended up having a petty amazing day.
We headed out onto route 7 - the pan-american highway which is the road that cuts across Argentina and into Chile. Up until 2004, this road was pretty much a dirt track, and quite narrow - not really suited to the hundreds of trucks that made the journey between the two countries every day. Eventually the road was rebuilt and redirected on a less precarious route - this is what we followed, however on occasion cuting off onto the old road to see points of interest.
The whole journey was filled with amazing landscape views of the Andes as we climbed higher and higher. Our starting point in Mendoza being only a few hundred metres above sea level, our destination being 4000m.
We made the occasional toilet stop and stopped for pictures at various vantage points, such as the view of Aconcagua - the highest peak outside of the Himalayas at just shy of 7000metres. Many tourists climb this peak, quite a hard climb from what I gathered but the view of it looked stunning. We were even very luck to to see two Condor Eagles soaring over the valley! (See pic below!)
Our final point was high in the mountains on the natural border of Argentina and Chile, at the point where they have a statue of Christ - named Christo Redento - not the same as the one in Rio, but equally impressive. As I stepped off the bus I was immediately hit by cold air gusting in such a way I struggled to stand, combined with being 4000m high were the air is thinner and as a result started to feel the effects of the altitude - dizziness being the main one. The views from here were stunning, again, struggled to put into words what I was seeing and I just hope my pictures will do it justice.
As we were gradually climbing our guide asked if anyone had any crisps - one couple did and he asked if they could not open the bag...reason being a little science experiment...as we climbed higher the bag of crisps continued to expand, eventually at around 3000metres we heard a "pop" as the bag exploded. Before we set off on the return,the guide then asked if anyone had an empty water bottle. A few people did to which they were asked to put the top on and not touch it until we got back to Mendoza...when we finally got back, all the bottles had imploded and where crushed as the pressure changed from the change in altitude and air pressure.
The journey itself was really interesting, in what broken English we did get, we learnt about how the route of the Mendoza River had been altered to allow the water to feed the many "bodegas" (vineyards) in the Mendoza region which produced some of the best New World Malbecs. We also saw a few ski resorts - quite odd seeing ski lifts without any snow! The winters here can be quite severe with 4+meteres of snow falling - it's a very popular spot for winter sports
On the way back down we stopped at Puerto de Inca - the point of the Inca Bridge - thousands of years old this bridge forms part of a natural spring and was the first point at which it was possible to cross the river. it is believed that way way back in the Ice Age a large piece of ice fell and wedged between the banks of the river, over times, with rock falls etc, a natural bridge developed, then the ice melted and voila. The bridge itself though is situated at the point of hot springs the combination of this has made the bridge and the surrounding banks golden yellow with the rich minerals pouring out of the rocks - it was pretty impressive to see...
We finally got back to Mendoza good 12 hours after we set off, I was exhausted but managed to have the energy to head out for dinner along with Bjorn - the Dutch guy that I met on the tour - we're both traveling alone and felt dinner on your own is pretty boring. We're almost following the same route so I may well meet up with him again in Calafate in a few days time!
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