After one quick night in very non-touristy San Luis, it was a relatively short drive west to Mendoza, the gateway to the Andes Mountains. Miraculously, I found a place on the street to park the car just a half block from my hostel. Awesome! I checked in, got settled, and then decided to walk a few miles to the Monument to the Army of the Andes high up on the hill in Parque General San Martín.

If you guessed that the monument had something to do with our old friend General Jose de San Martín, congratulations, you’re right! Apparently, Mendoza was not only the gateway to the Andes, but also the gateway into Chile. This is where General San Martín spent a lot of time and where he launched his campaign into Chile. The views from the monument weren’t as spectacular as I was hoping, but I got a decent perspective on the town from up there anyway. And it was nice to go for that long walk. I’ve been trapped in that tiny car too much.

Parque General San Martín is pretty huge and seems to be where everyone goes to run, bike, walk, hang out. It was a super pleasant stroll back to town. And right near the entrance is the center of a lot of the action, Fuente de los Continentes. Here’s a random fun fact about Argentina… they eat ridiculously late here. Restaurants close around one or two o’clock and don’t open again until around eight. Want a late lunch or an early dinner, or even a normal dinner, FORGET IT! I’m literally starving to death in this country!

There’s not a whole lot of interest in the city itself, but Mendoza is a really nice place to walk around and hang out, friendly plazas, tree lined streets, cafes, and lots of wine. I have zero interest in wine, but this is one of Argentina’s premier wine regions. I spent the day wandering around the quintet of themed plazas in the heart of the city. Plaza Italia is of course Italy themed with statutes of the Divine Comedy and Roman statues.

My favorite and the most colorful was Plaza España decorated with Spanish tiles and mosaics depicting Spanish missionaries, Don Quixote, and Christopher Columbus.

I’ve learned by now that no self respecting Argentinian city is complete without a Plaza San Martín. And Plaza Chile represents the friendship between these two neighbors locked together in history. That’s Jose de San Martín and Chile’s own Bernardo O’Higgins all chummy in the pic. Not pictured is the giant and central Plaza Independencia. It’s basically a big city park.

Apparently, the city of Mendoza was originally a bit further north. In 1861, a giant earthquake pretty much destroyed everything and the town was eventually rebuilt to the south. You can still see the ruins of the Jesuit Iglesia de San Francisco. There’s not a whole lot left.

Also, across the street is a little history museum built up around the remains of Mendoza’s once great Cabildo. There’s even less of this place left, just some foundations and flooring. The museum was pretty interesting though.

This part of town is way out of the way and very quiet. As I walked back towards where all the action is I found Mendoza’s founder, Pedro del Castillo, who founded the city in 1561. Respect!

Back at the edge of Parque General San Martín, I wandered into the Paleontology Museum. It was very small, and a very quick visit. They had a pretty good collection of native artifacts, but the dinosaurs were severely lacking in attendance.

Ok, now for the main reason I came to Mendoza, to see the highest peak in South America at 22,858ft, Aconcagua. It’s not just the highest peak in South America, it’s the highest mountain in the whole western hemisphere. I wasn’t planning to climb it, but I was planning to hike part way to get the postcard view of it at Laguna Horcones.

It seems they had some pretty bad snow storms about a week ago up here. So much so that I didn’t even think I would be able to drive up this far. The road was actually not bad, but the trail was closed (that’s the trailhead above). They wouldn’t let anybody pass, not even me. They obviously don’t know who I am.

Luckily, about a half mile back up the road there was a spot. I climbed high up the snowbank and back a ways to a high rocky knoll where I could at least see it. It’s not the view I was hoping for, but it will have to do. Wow, there’s a LOT of snow up here!

The other big point of interest up here is the Inca Bridge. It’s a natural bridge over the river and right next to some hot springs. In the pic below, the bridge is on the left and the deposits from the hot springs should be obvious. The structure was built for people to enjoy the thermal baths way back in 1902 and was active until the 1960’s. Between that and the bridge itself is a small steaming hot waterfall. None of this is in any way related to the Incas however.

My original plan was to stay a couple of days in Mendoza and a couple of days in Uspallata to access the hiking, but with all the reports of closed roads I decided to spend the whole time in Mendoza. That turned out to be a good plan because while the snow wasn’t a problem for the roads, the endless road construction near Mendoza really slowed the driving down. Also, since this is the main route from Argentina into Santiago, there were millions of semis all driving at a snails pace. It was a pretty frustrating drive overall.

On the way back I did stop in Uspallata to hike out to Cerro Tunduqueral. This is considered a sacred place to the local Huarpe people and has some petroglyphs. I had the place all to myself.

The views were actually the best part. What an incredible valley! This is also apparently where they filmed the movie Seven Years in Tibet, so there’s that.

I had a couple of other hikes mapped out, but with the construction and the three plus hour drive it was going to take to get to them, I decided to skip them. Luckily, Mendoza was a super comfortable place to stay. I still feel like someone is riding the brakes on this trip though. I hope they let up soon because I’m itchin’ to run! Now, I get to drive seven hours back to Córdoba to catch a plane to my next stop. The rental car company wanted to charge me five hundred dollars to drop the car off in Mendoza. NOPE! Until the next post…