The first leg of the trip was from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina. To get there we had to cross the Andes. This impressive road over Los Liberadores Pass took us to above 3000m. We delayed the beginning of the trip due to it snowing up there and we had a couple of last minute preparations to make before embarking on this mammoth road trip. We eventually drove over the Andes mountain range which was epic. From the road you look out the window at 5000m peaks and also the highest peak in continental America, Aconcagua (6,960m). Scenic as!
There was still a fair amount of snow around up the top
At the very top of the pass is the boarder which we had a little hold up because of a minor discrepancy with some paper work but it all worked out in the end. We stuck with the main road for a little longer before we got on our first gravel road. It was a beautiful drive and we only saw a couple of cars over the 106km road.
Coming down we got off the main road of Route 7 and took our first back road on Route 52
Once in Mendoza it was time to eat some meat and sample some of the local Malbec.. Soo good! Carne y vino - Perfecto!
Once we arrived in Mendoza our hunger level was high so we went on a mission to change some currency and find some food. Mendoza is most famous as a wine area. We sampled many bottles and took some extra for the road south.
Mapman showing us potential routes.
After a couple of wines and a couple of beers we finalized our plans for the next day which was to take old Route 40 and then head up into the mountains to camp at a hot spring. We don't really know what to expect or what we were going to find which is all part of the adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment