Los Andes

After a dry breakfast of banana on bread I was ready to head over to the Aconcagua national park for what was going to be 6-7h of hiking up to the first base camp, called Confluencia, used for the multi week trek to the summit of Aconcagua.
I got to the Park entrance at 10am and was glad to be able to leave bike with the park rangers in the tourist information, who promissed to make sure none of my stuff would go missing on their watch🤞

The first hour of the hike was an easy and well maintained walk to a Mirador, at 2800m, with an impressive view of the top of Mt. Aconcagua (the tallest mountain outside Asia).
Shortly after the Mirador started the actual track.
This part was far more demanding as there was no real path but more of a unmarked trail and general direction to follow.
It took several hours to hike across the valley left by the melting glaciers of Aconcagua. The views were raw and beautiful, and the hike was spent admiring the surrounding mountains, waterfalls and streams and enjoying the solitude as there were almost no hikers around in the morning.

I arrived at Confluencia, located at 3400m, in the early afternoon and climbed the camp's view point to enjoy my lunch sanwich and marvel at the surrounding landscape.

The track was much busier on the way back, both with hikers going up to the base camp to start their 2 week expedition to the mountain top and Gauchos leading groups of Mules to transport supplies up and down the valley.

The further I got down, the windier it got, with winds being funnelt in the valley.
Once back at the visitors centre I got back on my bike and braced myself for the remaining kilometres to the last settlement before the border against a strong headwind (got a bit of a Jama flashback here...) and some steep climbs that made me once again wish for smaller gears.

10 km and over one hour later I finally got to las las Cuevas, 2km from the Chilean border. The place of consisted nothing more than 2 overpriced refugios and an abandonned train station. After considering to pitch my tent in the station, the cold, wind and big wish for hot food and a shower made me choose one of the refugios instead. This was by far the worst value for money I ever had, costing as much as a whole apartment for two did in Salta, while being roughly as comfortable as the places I had stayed in some remote Bolivian villages...but hey, at least the shower didn't try to electrocute me 🤷‍♀️

Lastly got some food at the same refugio, where I was glad the prices had not yet doubled after the downgrading of the Argentinian peso the week before, and called it an early night.

🚴‍♀️ Distance cycled: 13 km
🚶‍♀️ Distance hiked: 18 km (6h)
⛰️ Ascent hiked: 800 m
🏔 Highest point: 3500 m
🐴 Mules seen: 20+
🌡 Night time temperature: -2°C
🚿 Temperature of shower: freezing cold 😵‍💫Read more