High Andes Tour

It’s our last full day in Mendoza, and the last thing we have on our list is a day trip up to the Chile border. The scheduled pick up is 7:30am, so by 8:00 we’re feeling a little deja vu as we sit patiently in the lobby. The concierge assures us we have not been forgotten, and sure enough, ten minutes later our bus arrives.

We know from the brochure that the trip will take 10 hours. What it doesn’t say is that 8 of those will sitting on the bus, as it winds it way slowly up into the mountains. There are a few mildly interesting stops along the way, like the sulphur-rich hot springs that have colored the rocks yellow (that some yahoos in the 50’s tried to divert and turn into a hotel spa).

And this eerily empty ski resort, all boarded up for the off season.

But the star of the show is Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas (2,500 feet taller than Mount McKinley).

We finish the tour with lunch at the top of the pass (about 10,000 feet), and then start the long ride back to Mendoza. It makes for a long day, and we’re probably quite spoiled having spent so much time in the mountains (the Rockies growing up, Cascades now, and even other parts of the Andes last year in Peru), so while we enjoyed the trip, we’d probably only give it a “meh”.

With the time we have left back in the city, we manage to get a few gifts for the boys, and grab what might be our last cheap steak for a while (our next hotel is pretty secluded, so options outside the onsite restaurant may be slim). From there it’s off to an early bedtime in preparation for our morning flight to Iguassu.