So Wednesday didn't end up being a mountain day. Tuesday night, while cooking dinner, I met Louie (Montreal) and Stefan (Germany) and we stayed up pretty late sharing a beer and talking. Louie and Stefan had just met that morning, but had decided to go trekking together for five days; it was an arrangement of convenience, because they'd both been looking for a hiking partner and just so happened to run into each other in our hostel. Part of our conversation was them getting to know each other, and part was all of us talking about what we'd done and what we loved. Stefan is quite a mountaineer, it turns out: he climbed Aconcagua last month and because they were driven by summit fever, he and his climbing partner pushed until they reached the top at 5 pm (when their turn-around time should've been 1 pm) and they got caught in a blizzard on the way down, which forced them spent the night out on the mountain because they couldn't see to continue hiking down. Stefan walked away unscathed, and his partner got minor frostbite on his toes and the tip of his nose. Quite a story, no? (Reminds me of Dead Lucky, the story of the man who survived a night out on Everest) Louie is a rock climber, and will be venturing around Chile and Argentina for the next two months, migrating from one climbing spot to the next. He works as an engineer, and quit his last job to go on this trip.
All told, I crawled into bed at 1:30 am, and didn't quite feel like trying to wake myself up in three hours to catch the bus to Aconcagua. So I slept in, deciding instead to take an easy day around town. This turned out to be a lucky turn of events, because during my reading about Aconcagua Park in the morning, I discovered that one was required to get a permit in Mendoza before arriving at the park (so I wonder what would've happened if I'd just shown up at the guardaparques (ranger station) and wanted to go hiking). I took care of that, spent some time reading in a park, and bought some bottles of wine for gifts. All in all a successful day, one that left me better rested and more prepared for the full day of hiking to come.
Wednesday evening, I signed up for a four-hostel pizza party, and went with quite a few other people from my hostel to another one, part of the same hostel network, where I sat and shared some freshly baked pizzas with Amauri (Morelia, Mexico), Elsa (Marseilles, France), and Carolina (BA). We talked as we stuffed ourselves, and then I took my leave of the party, although there was apparently a lot more to come throughout the evening. I got back to my hostel just in time to skype with my mama for the first time from her new iPhone, which was really nice. This time, instead of just talking on the phone, we had the advantage of video too, and of course she was sitting with my kitty Calla on her lap (such a mean thing to do, teasing me like that). We had a few problems with the connection, but it was still nice to see each others' faces. We chatted for a while and then I headed off to bed, to catch a few hours of sleep before my 5 am wake-up call for my date with the mountains.
5 am came too quickly, but since I'd organized everything the day before, all I had to do was roll out of bed, put on clothes, and grab my food from the fridge before heading off to the bus station. Our bus pulled out of the station just after 6 am, as the first morning light was breaking over the vineyards. I stayed awake for about twenty minutes, and then my drowsiness got the best of me and I dozed off for a couple hours. When I awoke and started to groggily take in my surroundings, I was pleasantly amazed to find myself going through a huge, deep canyon with some of the coolest rock layers and formations ever. Some parts of it reminded me of Utah, the canyons around Moab and Canyonlands National Park. It was a nice start to the day, made even more wonderful by our arrival at Aconcagua Park right after 10 am.
I checked in with the guardaparques (at an elevation of 2800 m, or 9186 ft) and was given a numbered trash bag, with the warning that I'd be in big trouble if I didn't bring it back when I checked out (this was really effective, actually, in keeping trash off the trail; I only saw three pieces, and was able to pick up two of them). I slathered on some sunscreen, filled up my nalgene, and set off. There were a few other people and groups that I passed on the way, but I was moving at a quick pace and soon had a good buffer of empty space around me. Exactly the way I needed it...just nature and me, a day to reconnect. In two hours and fifteen minutes, I'd made it to my destination, a camp called Confluencia (3200 m, or 10499 ft) in the valley leading to the Aconcagua base camp. During the entire ascent, I was heading straight at that massive mountain (6962 m, or 22841 ft, the highest in South America), capped with white snow that contrasted beautifully against the intense blue sky and surrounding red, green, and grey rocks. Words cannot describe...
Luckily I took three hundred pictures to do the work for me (*sheepish grin*).
The day could really not have been more perfect. It was completely clear, so the sun did a good deal to keep me warm. Wearing shorts, my Chacos, and a long-sleeve shirt, I was fine when the wind blew, and warm when the air was still. My feet and legs got filthy from the dirt trail, a fact I rejoiced in. I avoided getting sunburned. AND I got to get out of any type of city for the day and hike in an incredibly beautiful place. I couldn't have asked for anything more.
Once at Confluencia, I ate a quick lunch , refilled my water bottle, and then began my descent, wanting to make sure I had enough time to hike all the way out of the park and down to see the Puente del Inca (an impressive rock bridge of the Río Las Cuevas) before catching a return bus at 4:45. My timing was perfect, and I was again lulled into sleep on the return journey, worn out as I was by having hiked for six hours and covered 21 kilometers, or 13 miles. This time I slept through the canyon I'd seen on the way up, and was awake to see what I'd slept through in the morning, another impressive canyon. Some parts of this one reminded me of the Bighorn Sheep Canyon, right outside of Salida, and it was something like the cherry on top of the cake.
We pulled back into the bus station in Mendoza at dusk, and I walked back to my hostel before dark fell. I immediately headed for a well-deserved shower, which, though it was cold, still felt incredible. The water coming off my legs was laughably dark brown, a sign of how much dirt I'd accumulated throughout the day. After cleaning up, I ate a little dinner, and then skyped with Sammi and Hillie together. Unfortunately, we weren't able to video chat with each other because we didn't have the right version of skype, but at least we could all catch up with each other (it had been long overdue). It felt almost like we were all sitting together back at school, except for that we're actually thousands of miles apart. Oh, the marvels of skype...
Today is my last day in Mendoza, and I'm taking advantage of a free morning to catch up with these posts. More pictures will be coming soon. This afternoon I'm going on another wine tour, visiting two more bodegas and an olive oil factory. It'll be nice to get one last adventure in before catching another late bus back to BA, where I'll be until Sunday night, when I head off to Iguazú for a couple days. It'll be a bit of a whirlwind until this time next week, and then I'm off to Chile! Love, your happy-as-a-clam gal in a sea of sunshine.
No comments:
Post a Comment