Aconcagua – Mendoza

View of Mendoza

The team left Joburg yesterday at 7am and would have arrived in Mendoza (centre of Argentina’s wine industry and one of the most beautiful and neatest cities in the country) at 10:30pm last night and transferred to their hotel. (Argentina is 5 hours behind SA).  Weight was not really an issue on Air Malaysia but it will be interesting to hear how things went on the domestic airline who are strict about extra weight – only 15kgs hold luggage.  And they were certainly packing – taking heavy gear (such as crampons, tents, stoves etc) as well as the food required for above Plaza da Mulas/Base Camp (the logistics crew in Argentina provides all meals up to and including BC). 

Streets of Mendoza

Mendoza fountains

This morning, the plan is to sort out their gear, repack or collect it from gear hiring shops, collect their permits for the National Park and then catch a 4 hour bus trip to to Puente del Inca near the Chile border.  Puente del Inca is a natural stone bridge over the Rio Mendoza and one of Argentina’s natural wonders with its coppery gold colour rocks.  Here they will overnight and Sean and the logistics crew will organsie a posse of mules to haul their half ton of supplies, tents and high-altitude equipment to Base Camp.

(Many thanks to Pierre Jonker and Heinrich Olivier for use of their pics from the 2009 Ac expedition).

Puente del Inca

Tags: Mendoza, Puente del Inca