VALLECITOS

After arriving to Mendoza in western Argentina on a super deluxe first class bus (bed, bingo, dinner, movies, wine, and champagne), Sheri and Curtis settled into a small locals hotel which had air con which was important because it was hot. We checked out some sights and the following day we bussed out to Maipu, an agricultural suburb of Mendoza, and hired some bikes from Mr. Hugo (30 pesos with a bottle of cold water included). We toured around some vineyards and tried some olives too which are grown here and sampled homemade sweets and hooch (absinthe at 11 am!). We went on a serious tour of Trapiche Winery and a few others but it was pushed 100 degrees and biking and sipping red wine was not a good combo. We headed on back to Mr Hugo’s. The road was busy and a police motorcycle gave us a lights on escort. Arriving at Mr Hugo’s we found Mr Hugo handing out ice water and of course free wine, all you can drink. We chatted with some folks and stayed until dusk. It was still 35 deg (95 deg).

Moving on we headed up to Uspallata, a small oasis set in a dry, rocky valley, which has formations like southern Utah or Nevada. We stayed at a hostel about 4 miles out of town. We did some hiking and pony riding and every night the hostel manager, Christen, had a big BBQ with wine and a long table for 20. It was a mixed crowd of international travelers and locals all chatting away and of course serious slabs of meat. From here we set out for some backpacking starting at ski resort called Vallecitos. We caught a bus to a refugio and dropped a bag and then hitched up to the resort at 3000 meters (9850 ft) and started walking. We went up a valley in to the Cordillera Plata (Silver Mountains), and arrived to a lovely spring fed meadow. At 2 o’clock we were having lunch, at 3 o’clock we were setting up the tent, and at 4 o’clock we were enduring a violent hell storm. Curtis who had been cursing about schlepping a four season tent through the hot cities of Argentina and Uruguay was now very happy to be protected from violent wind driven hail and rain. Unfortunately our site selection wasn’t so good. What had been the perfect spot next to a large rock actually was a low spot, draining a wide area. The tent was shortly in four inches of water and rising and although the tent didn’t leak it took on the character of a water bed. So during a “lull” we stuffed out gear into garbage bags and ran with the tent to high ground. After some time the storm passed and the sunset and other campers were out chatting in Spanish. At dusk a red fox appeared at a distance from our front door. Next day we hiked to a camp by a big rock. We rested and watched some guanacos and then day hiked up to a moraine at 3900 meters (13,000 ft). Coming back Curtis felt the altitude and our stream had dried up so we had no water. After a long night we moved down to a well water meadow and rested. The following day we felt great and day hiked up to a place called El Salto. When we reached the place, we turned a corner and we entered a place of mountains and glaciers and chill wind. We trudged on through snow to a high camp and chatted with some jolly climbers (one Swiss, one Canadian, and one French). They happily kicked steps for us up to a ridge at about 4800 meters (15,750 ft). We had arrived to the Andes. We came down and next day hiked out and hitched a great ride all the way back to Mendoza.