Our tour was scheduled to start at 7am the next morning and when they only showed up 30 minutes late, things were off to a promising start. We made it to the Pan American Highway and were into the foothills in good time, watching a beautiful sunrise light up the Andes.
But then the driver pulled over, stopped, popped the hood and stood back as steam poured out of the engine. After trying valiantly to revive the van, the guide told us that we'd be getting an extra, unscheduled stop on the tour while he headed to the nearest town (nearest being a relative term) to call us a new van.
I do mean he literally wisked us away. Since we had lost three hours, most of the stops were reduced to the bus driver slowing down, saying "foto, foto, foto" and pointing left, then all of us jumping to that side, throwing open windows and frantically snapping pictures. Finally we made it to Aconcagua which is just before the Chile 'limit line' and had a nice hike. At 6,962 meters it is the highest mountain outside of Asia and, like the Himalayans, looks very young and rugged. Unlike the Himalayans, there are supposedly some fairly simple, non-technical ascents that you can do if you are fit and acclimitized (I'm 0 for 2 there).
We also got to stop at Punta del Inca which is a natural land bridge right next to where thermal springs rise to the surface. The thermal springs run down over the bridge and riverbank, covering the rocks with these incredibly colorful mineral deposits. Very cool. Then we headed back to town, planned our wine tours for Monday and crashed.
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