Puente del Inca, Argentina
32° 48' S 69° 54' W
Dec 19, 2005 22:10
Distance 55km

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earlier Entry 37 of 73 later
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mas montañas

Text written in: English

after one night in uspallata, I head farther into the andes - this time to spend 2 nights in los penitentes, an argentine ski resort so windy all day, every day. I can't imagine this place in winter!!! 2 ranges over is aconcagua. my second day I hike up to the top of the resort only to find I'm surrounded by even TALLER mountains all around. no chance of seeing acongacua, but the still-snow-covered peaks I can see are brilliant.

the hiking reminds me of the alps in france - so steep! whenever I got off trail, I managed to stir up mini rock slides. when it occurred to me that no one in the world knew exactly where I was, I decided to play it a little safer. one time, a short valley over, I heard the rocks and dust flying from a mini-slide. I was ready to duck & cover if those rocks hopped into my valley, but luckily it stayed away. in general, these mountains are still MOVING and you can see signs of it everywhere - so many recent rock slides, no vegitation, boulders everywhere. one place near the pass to chile looked like an entire mountain collapsed and just left boulders the size of starter homes.

so my plan was to book a tour here and trek for a few days around aconcagua, but I make a rookie mistake and showed up with little money and only one question: where's the cash machine? bummer the answer was: in uspallata. ummm...this is where I just came from. so I cut my trip short and in one day, crammed a bus ride back to uspallata, a call to the bus agent once I got there to stop siesta-ing and open the office so I could buy a ticket to santiago, a bang on the door of the bank to stop siesta-ing and let me get my money!!, a lucky dive into the mercado for coke and crackers while they locked the door behind me so they could begin siesta-ing, and a hop onto the 5 hour bus ride to santiago. whew.

after today (oh yeah, and I got the back seat on a bus with a really really stinky toilet) its more clear than ever that I'm not traveling because I like my life to be comfortable and perfect. which is good, becuase my life was too comfortable and perfect in the states.

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earlier Entry 37 of 73 later
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