The High Andes

Today we woke up at 7:00 AM to go on a tour up into the Andes Mountains. It was a blast! We rode in a van for most of the day and periodically made stops along the way. Our first stop was in a little town called Uspallata where people rented snow gear and sleds for the day. We were just there to enjoy the scenery and learn about the country so we didn't rent anything :) Our last stop was Las Cuevas, which is where we ate lunch, and it was delicious!  Along the way we saw:

Puente del Inca (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_del_Inca)

 

 

 

Lago Potrerillos - man made lake where all the irrigation water comes from

THE ANDES!

Natural wall and the Mendoza River

First view of Aconcagua -the snowy one in the middle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua)

Ski area- there hasn't been enough snow to ski this year though :(

Looking the opposite way from the ski slope...very much a desert

Second view of Aconcagua. It's the cloud covered one in the middle this time.

Picheuta Colonial Bridge

Tired out and tired of the cold ;)

We got back home at 7:00 PM. It was quite a long day and we are both exhausted. We were very close to Chile today (about 5 km) and if you would like to see the route we took into the mountains go to Google Maps and "Get Directions" from Mendoza, Argentina to Las Cuevas, Mendoza, Argentina. When we started to head back to Mendoza I saw a sign that said it was 197 kilometers away-I had no idea we had gone that far. It took us about 3 hours to get back down the mountain and man do those truckers drive crazy! There were a ton of tunnels a long the way and the country was such a sight to see. However, I will definitely be sleeping in tomorrow :)