10th – 11th – Back in Mendoza

The two days in Mendoza were due to the buffer days on the mountain so we basically had two days to just kill time. The 10^th nothing had been planned so the day was simply spent on wandering around in the city and enjoying(?) the soreness from the long and fast walk the day before.

Dinner was had at a fancy place and since Preben had just been informed that he had received top marks on an assignment back home he decided he would pay for all of us. Well, if he insisted… We followed up on the dinner by going to a bar where some of us left early (early as at around 0200) while others were only just warning up.

The 11^th we were picked up at 1030 at the hotel for a full day 3-vineyard wine tour. After the late night last night only four of us showed up; no big surprise that it was the three that stayed behind at the bar who had difficulties getting up (or even remembering much from coming home a couple of hours earlier).

As the tour was set up we visited 3 vineyards and got to taste the goods at each place. The first stop was at Bodega Benegas where we were welcomed with a glass of rosé wine, and after the very nice tour we had ended up in a nice cool basement where we got to taste 4 very good wines; 1 white and 3 red. The tasting room was actually the vineyards old large wine tanks for storage. The second place the tour felt rushed and as just another group of tourists (as opposed to the first place that felt personal) but we had an absolutely amazing 3-course lunch, which included plenty of wine and a very, very tender steak. Looking back it didn’t matter much that the tour felt rushed, as their equipment was almost identical to the first place’s but newer, so it just felt like more of the same, really. From there we went to the last place, Bodega Cruzat, where they made champagne, or rather the local equivalent, and because they were in the middle of harvesting (which they do a couple of weeks earlier than for wines) we got to try to bottle and label a couple of bottles. And keep them. Bonus!

Coming back to the hotel we had a couple of hours before going out for the final dinner on the trip. Despite it not being possible to order the last simple, massive, Argentinian steak there were absolutely no complaints about the food in any way. 

Our three guides on Aconcagua; Pablo, Gustavo and Juan Carlos.

The cellar at Benegas.

The room where we did the tasting.

What a lovely sight. 

Warning: visiting a vineyard may cause excessive thirst and the urge to spend money.

21st – 23rd – Arrival

Flying from Mendoza was quite uneventful. Madrid is a huge airport where you can keep walking straight ahead without seemingly getting anywhere. And Iberia isn’t too happy with installing seats in their planes with decent legroom. I guess it would be easier to have one’s legs operated shorter… The layover in Santiago, despite the short time we had, went surprisingly well. The flight to Mendoza was basically nothing but a half-an-hour jump over the mountains before landing again just on the other side.

Arriving in Mendoza we were greeted by Juan Carlos, our guide/contact and Pablo, a second guide. We were brought to our hotel followed by a walk in the immediate area where we had lunch and an afternoon by ourselves. The hotel is only a few minutes’ walk from the center, so we are close to plenty of restaurants and shops.

For dinner we met and went out to a steak restaurant, where I, obviously, had a steak (first of many). Being in Argentina I felt that choosing anything else would be heresy. To be honest it didn’t quite live up to my, admittedly high, expectations; great size and taste, but it wasn’t very tender and it was filled with tendons.

The trip's first steak.

The next day we went out to get our climbing permits. It felt a little weird, or at least bureaucratic, having to go to pay for the permit at a Western Union and taking receipt with us to show at the tourist center. Apparently the tourist center doesn’t have the money and security to handle the large sums that goes through the system for the numerous permits during climbing season.

The rest of the day was free, so a bit of walking around, lunch, buying stuff we needed (not much though) but other than that staying back at the hotel relaxing. Dinner was at a new place, and after the semi-failed steak last night I decided I wanted to try another one in an attempt to straighten up my impression of Argentinian steaks. Size and taste was just as good, amazingly tender and no tendons. Success! Yesterday’s steak was luckily just a random fluke. On top of that, the side orders where skewers with small pieces of bell pepper and onion, in-between chunks of meat. No complaints from me.

Tomorrow we will leave the hotel at around 1300 to drive to Vallecitos where we will be staying at a hut for two nights to start our acclimatization. It’s at 2700m, app. 2000 meters above Mendoza, so it will likely be felt. Until we reach Aconcagua the days we carry our own bags with all equipment from camp to camp will be relatively short, likely less than 4 hours, so that’ll be nice.

When getting picked up at the airport Juan Carlos mentioned that the temps that day where up at 32°C, and the following day they reached 36°C. The second and last evening in Mendoza we were told that the following day it would reach even higher temps. I am quite glad that we are going towards higher ground, effectively avoiding the high temperatures.

Light thingie at Plaza Independencia