Day 6 of our Argentinian tour was another day of travel.
We now drove to the city and province of Mendoza, the site of our next
concert. Before checking in at the Mendoza hotel, we traveled to the
highest mountain in the southern Hemisphere Aconcagua, a mountain close
to twenty-three thousand feet high above sea level. Aconcagua is part
of the Andes, the largest mountain range in the world stretching
throughout the western part of South America from Colombia all the was
to the southern tip of Argentina. We traveled virtually all day to get
to the highest point that one could arrive by bus. One will notice in
the photos that due to the arid climate of the province over hundreds of
years, much of the water in the Mendoza river is dried up. You will
see photos of sites that were obviously full of water, now totally dry.
The views of the Andes mountain ranges were spectacular. As you can
imagine, driving up a mountain with altitudes miles above sea level, was
somewhat of a challenge given the high altitude and lack of
acclimatization. On the way to Aconcagua, we ate a very fine lunch at
the Uspallata Village. Aconcagua is about 15 kilometers from the Chile
border. Often when mountains separate countries, the borders are
somewhat disputable. Our guide shared with us that both governments
would like to claim that the peak of Aconcagua is on their side of the
political division, but officially it is part of Argentina. We arrived
at photo site for the mountain, with temperatures in the lower 40s.
On
the way down from the mountain, we visited another popular tourist
attraction, Puente Del Inca, a natural arch that forms a bridge over the
a river on the mountain. It is quite striking to see. Adjacent to
this natural structure, water from hot springs ooze from a mountain
formation, making this a popular spa site over the years. This spa area
is now closed by the government due to increasing landslides over the
years making it too dangerous.
After
Puente del Inca, we stopped into a small town that was celebrating
Argentina's national holiday. May 25th was a national holiday in
Argentina, celebrating the anniversary of the creation of their first
national government. This village was enjoying a parade to celebrate
their holiday. We then drove directly to our hotel.
To
give you a timeline, it took us three hours to travel to Mendoza from
San Luis, another four hours west of Mendoza, to get to the drivable top
of the mountain range, and another three hours to return to the Mendoza
hotel. After twelve hours in the bus this day, we were ready for the
Amérian Executive Mendoza Hotel, which was the nicest hotel that we have
stayed in on tour. We felt as though we earned these nice
accommodations.
On day 7,
concert day, we began the day with a guided tour of Mendoza. Mendoza is
an interesting city in that there are plazas all around, every couple
of blocks or so. More interestingly, there are the channels around the
city to collect all the water that falls from the sky. Typically when
it rains in urban centers the water just rests and eventually
evaporates. Mendoza, is basically in the middle of a desert. In trying
to keep the city as irrigated as possible, and of course to make sure
all the vineyards are properly watered, the city collects every drop of
water that it can. One must be careful where one walks as to not fall
in a gutter! We climbed a huge park high above the city - the Alameda
of General San Martin for another photo op. Mendoza clearly was the
most picturesque city so far on the tour.
After
a few hours of downtime, we walked to dinner and then drove to another
concert, this time at the Iglesia de Ntra. Sra. De la Merced. The
concert was hosted by the Mendoza University Choir. We enjoyed another
great concert, in their most historic church. Again, we had a great
attendance and great response. After the concert, the Mendoza choir
hosted an elaborate reception. Unfortunately, we could not stay long,
as we had to fly back to our arrival city of Buenos Aires early the
next morning.
EC
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