Vallecitos

On Monday November 9th we wanted to get to Vallecitos, as Pedro´s friend Mono had told us that there is good hiking around there.  Because of the high altitude and "easy" access to several different peaks, a lot of mountaineers train there before climbing Aconcagua.  As there is no public transport we had to pay $100 pesos (around $25) to get picked up.  No wonder.  Vallecitos is around 12km up a winding dirt road, and is composed of five refugios (lodges) and a small ski park.  At 2800 meters (9200 feet), I´m amazed that anyone is able to make it up there during the winter.

On Monday and Tuesday nights we stayed at the Refugio San Bernardo.  It is a cool swiss chalet looking kind of building to which the proprietors are adding additional dorm rooms, slowly but surely.  We payed $45 pesos ($12ish USD) each for our bed, and $35pesos for dinner at night.  Since it was still a week or two before the beginning of high season in mid november, there were only 2-4 others staying at the same time as us, so we had a private room.

When we arrived in Vallecitos we were a bit dizzy from the altitude, and the wind was gusting 100kmph, so we only took a brief walk before retreating back to the refugio fireplace.  The picture to the left shows how the wind was blowing the snow off of the nearby peaks.

On Tuesday we ventured out to conquer a couple of the few non-threatening looking peaks nearby.  We summitted Cerro Andresito (3092m, 10,144ft) by taking an ill-advised path up a scree field.  It wasn´t actually too bad (not too loose), but Pedro was not happy and wanted to throw me off the mountain for forcing him to continue on to the next peak rather than heading back.  But it was a fairly gentle walk up a ridgeline to Cerro Arenales (3380m, 11,090ft).

From Cerro Arenales there were great views of Potrerillos in the valley below and snow-capped Andean peaks of the Cordon de Plata behind us.  We had fairly good weather, the wind had died down to gentle harrassment and luckily the snow that was falling on the mountains behind us never arrived to where we were hiking.

On Wednesday we were ready for an overnighter in the great outdoors.  The wind was still the iciest that I´ve ever encountered, but at least in the pauses we could appreciate the burning hot rays of sun.  We hiked around 1.5 or 2 km to a hanging valley called Las Veguitas (10,600 ft) about 400meters above Vallecitos.  Even though we had dumped a fair amount of weight from our packs at the refugio, it was still a very tiring slog uphill that took around an hour and 45 minutes.  We ate lunch, pitched our tent and then I crankily took a nap for an hour.  In the afternoon around 4pm we decided to hike up to another camping spot 2km further up the trail at Piedra Grande (11,650ft).  Much easier without our packs but still tiring.  We considered continuing on to camp Salto de Agua at 4300m the next day, but on hearing that there was no water and just a desolate morraine we changed plans and decided to head back towards Mendoza city.

More pictures of Vallecitos:

Las Vegas down under

On the Sunday after we arrived in Mendoza we took a bus as far as Potrerillos in the precordillera, then hitched a ride to a campground in a bright green microbus with a couple of mendocinos who needed gas money.  On hearing that we were looking for a pretty place they brought us up to the village of Las Vegas.  Las Vegas seems to be mostly vacation rentals and a couple of Eagleville-type store/restaurants.  We went to have a submarino (hot chocolate) at one of them and Pedro was thrilled to discover an Estudiantes (his futbol team) game on a tv in the corner.  Las Vegas is situated at 1800 meters above sea level (5900 feet) so we felt a bit winded hiking around the dirt roads.  We had great views of what we assumed was Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas, although in retrospect a lot of these Andean peaks look alike so who knows :)

We stayed at the muncipal campground which was packed with picnic-ers during the day, but was totally empty by evening.  We camped in a beautiful meadow with a slight slope.  In the morning when we got up we enjoyed the scene of vagrant horses loping across the field.

In Mendoza

Pedro and I took a night bus on thursday to Mendoza, wine country.  The bus trip was more like a cruise, and what it lacked in quality was made up for by unexpectedness.  We knew that "executive suite" buses had seats that recline 180 degrees.  They look like someone looted first class on United Airlines under cover of darkness and installed them in a double-decker bus.  We alse knew that they would give us airplane style meals during our 12 hour trip.  What was unexpected was the appetizers and sherry before dinner, unlimited wine with dinner, and whiskey nightcap afterwards.  Also unexpected was our breakfast of crackers, granola bars and dulce de leche =P  Not bad for 60 bucks.

We´re staying at a hostel in the city of Mendoza near the micro-center.  It´s a pretty great deal; $20 for our room, a glass of wine in the evening, breakfast in the morning and free use of their jurassic computers.  Hence the lack of photos with this post.

Mendoza oddly enough reminds me a bit of LA, or rather, maybe Mendoza is LA´s alternate reality where the US lost the Mexican-American war and LA remained sleeping little metropolis.  The city is a sleepy green oasis amidst desert plains, and behind it rise the steep gravelly ridges of the Precordillera.  The Precordillera are an intermediate mountain range that are the foothills of the andes.  At this time of year (late spring) they are barren of snow and vegetation...not very inviting, especially because the frigid winds of the andes tend to barrel down the slopes of the precordillera and onto the city of Mendoza.

Tomorrow Pedro and I are planning on continuing westwards into the Andes to a tiny town called Potrerillos where we´ll try out our backpacking equipment at a campground and if all goes well, ie we don´t freeze to death, we´ll take our maiden backpacking voyage.

Redding's Sister City

This is the "Puente de la Mujer" in Buenos Aires.  It was designed by Santiago Calatrava Valls, the same architect who designed the Sundial Bridge in Redding.

Perhaps you Redding natives already knew about the sister bridge in the southern hemisphere, but I had no idea.  When I saw it, I thought, "wait a minute, this looks oddly familiar..."

Tango show at Cafe Tortoni

Cafe Tortoni has been in business off and on for the last 150 years.   In the 30s and 40s it was a big literati hangout, frequented by the likes of Carlos Gardel, the famous tango singer, and the writer Jorge Luis Borges.

There are a ton of tourists who come here, but since Pedro, Wali and I came in the morning during the offseason, the place didn't seem overridden.  I had a delicious hot chocolate with churros that Amy P. would appreciate.

There are still a lot of old cafes and restaurants (usually known as bodegas)  that have a 1930's feel and the waiters in these places wear waiter suits straight out of the movies

In one of the back corners of Tortoni is an interesting papermache depiction of the literati in their native habitat :)  Not only is the architecture of the place gorgeous, but the walls are also covered with great painting by argentine artists throughout the ages.

This picture of Pedro and I is by the entrance to the library/museum in the back, a room that used to be a barber shop.

It was lucky that we stopped by Tortoni in the morning.  Even though October is the off-season, tickets go pretty quickly.  We bought the last 2 for that evening's show at 11 am.

At the show we ordered a plate of appetizers.  Note dishes from left to right: diced ham mixed with red bell pepper and olive oil, potato salad, hard boiled quail eggs (salty!), ham & cheese cubes, salami, salami, salami.  Did anybody mention that argentinians like meat?

The tango show was performed in the basement of Cafe Tortoni, a cabaret set-up.  The performance was composed of loose dramatic scenes: a turn-of the century brothel, a milonga nightclub, etc, and was performed by 4 couples dancing, a singer and a tango quartet (piano, bass, bandoneon, violin).  The music was great, the dancing impressive (especially the milonga, which is basically tango on amphetamines), and the dramatic setup silly but fun.

At one point in the show the mc asked how many argentinians were in the audience and all of 5 people raised there hands.  I have to give Tortoni credit though; all of the performance was in spanish, no pandering in english even when it came time to hawk the dvds of the show.  We happened to sit at the same table as two woman from Salta (northern argentina) who were unbelievably friendly.  The older woman was around 75 years old and within 5 minutes had invited us to her house for homemade empanadas when we get to Salta.  Within 15 minutes she invited us to stay at her house, and within 20 minutes she had even offered to lend us her car.  Amazingly friendly people those northerners, can't wait to get up there!