Foto, foto, foto

Proving that absolutely every conceivable food in Argentina has been combined with ham and cheese (burgers, steaks, pizza, flan), Aeorlinas served us ham and cheese flavored chips on the flight to Mendoza. More proof: the steak at dinner came wrapped in bacon (ham), but not ordinary bacon, the most delicious half inch, 6 ounce piece of bacon I've ever had.

Anyways, Mendoza is a cool, laidback city with lots of parks and good looking restaurants (some probably serving things other than ham). We met up with Justin, walked around a bit, talked to the incredibly helpful people at the tourist info place, booked a tour to the Andes for Sunday and called it a night (Kyle and Meghan in the 'matrimonal suite').

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.

So we sat at kilometer 1121 watching bus after empty bus pass us by. We played iPod games, we went on little hikes, we made our own Taboo games, we lamented the fact that I left my cards in the other bag. We waited one hour. Then two. Then three. Finally, just as we were all considering hitchhiking back to town, our new bus pulled over and wisked us away.

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.