Puente del Inca and Aconcagua (Day 37)

I crawled out of my cave of blankets this morning all warm and rested (the temperature is a lot colder at this altitude). After watching a mule drive stampede right outside the hostel and a little breakfast, I sat down with ever-affectionate Emilio and he laid out a few nearby hikes for me. The first one of the day was up to a nearby peak that was to offer a great lookout of the whole area, including Aconcagua. The second (Emilio wasn't sure I'd make it all in one day...he doesn't know me...) was in Parque Provincial Aconcagua, to get as close as a non-expeditioner could to the mighty mountain.


Puente del Inca is a super small village which basically just straddles the highway for about 2km. That's it. And as I said before, with the mountains so close, it's pretty wedged into the valley. So, the lookout should give me a good and long view. Unfortunately, the "path" (you just follow the mule trails) was through the equivalent of deep gravel. Yuck. Super annoying (and sketchy) to climb through. Even when I tried to hug the secondary spires, it wasn't much better. And, since Puente del Inca sits at 2720m to start, I had some elevation to contend with too. But, I did see some cool things en route to help distract my growing irritation. First off, I came across this flock of little green birds that looked a lot like budgies.


Then, about 200m from the summit, I stopped to watch a herd of horses and mules being driven around and down the neighbouring cliff. It's crazy how adapted they are to the terrain and how they can fly up and down the ridges like it's nothing.


When I finally reached the top, I had a bird's eye view of the whole area, including the peaks of Aconcagua and its neighbours



and some pretty cool formations on the mountain tops.

I sat down for a bite to eat and was soon joined by local on horseback, who was out to check on his cattle and horses spread all over the nearby ridge.

All their equipment looks a lot different than we use and their horses are super sturdy and quiet (unlike ours). Most of the farmers navigate the landscape on horseback and riding is second nature to everyone here.

The way back down the climb was only slightly better than the way up and this time there were quite a few bum slides and encounters with the prickly desert weeds here. Grrr. When I got back to the hostel, I took some time to snap a few shots,

poke around the village and the Puente del Inca monument. The Puente del Inca is a hot springs area (now closed unless you can sneak into the water under the cover of darkness to avoid the Gendarmia) that used to be an active spa area. You can still see the ruins of some of the old spa buildings and the yellow sulphur deposits that have built up over the years.

Since it was only early in the afternoon on a clear day, I took the opportunity to go ahead with the second hike for the day to the Parque Provincial Aconcagua. Although this had been the reason I wanted to visit this area, I guess it didn't really sink in until now how serious Aconcagua mountain (6959m) really is. There's a cemetery just outside of the village for all the fallen climbers (and it's done good business over the years) and a mountain doctor at the bridge to the summit route who approves blood-oxygen levels of everyone who tries to continue past. Yeah, this place is serious.

I had only planned to hike to the viewpoint for Aconcagua at Lago Harcones, since this gives the best panoramic view of the mountain. Since the mountain is so big, the best view is really from quite far away.

Funny, the mountain didn't strike me as big as it really is, but I had to remind myself that it's in a neighbourhood of mountains in excess of 6000m on all sides. Even still, I couldn't help my own curiosity though, so I did venture a little further in. But being that Aconcagua is so big, the view isn't much different from here.

With all the hype and intrigue for this mountain, it's easy to see why it draws people in. I found myself really asking if I could do the hike to the base camp. Being that I'm not prepared for this, and I've had some luck on a lot of hikes here, I figured it was best not to tempt fate. But, the next time round, I'm definitely going to give it a try. I talked to some people in the hostel who have made a sub-based camp trek and they had lots of problems with the altitude (although not serious). I'm curious to see how I'd make out with some altitude....

On my way out of the park, I had to step aside for a number of different pack mule processions, heading home after packing in rations and supplies into the climbers at base camp and above.

When I got back to the hostel, Emilio invited me to join the asado he was preparing.

Hungry from my day hikes, I was an easy sell, especially when I got a glimpse of what was in store!

These asados are really social- friends and family from all over join in and eat, drink and laugh together. It's a really fun part of the very social Argentine culture!