Saturday, March 15th, 2014
Today I would head out to the Andes mountains. I had arranged a small group tour with one of the local companies (there would be four of us in total with our two guides). I was picked up first at my hotel at around 0830 and then we went to pick-up the other three. Josh and Jimmy, were two Americans travelling together and Kate was an Australian who had met up with Josh and Jimmy along the way. Our two guides were Juan and Marcos. Juan is a guide full-time, and Marcos is a student, and mostly here because his Uncle owns the company. Very nice group of people to spend the day with.
It was about an hour drive to our destination for the day, but we made a couple stops along the way.
Our first stop was for this beautiful view. This lake is actually artificial. The water is collected and used by local farmers for irrigation.
That flag seems to need replacing
Another view of that artificial lake. Very pretty morning.
After a couple stops for snacks (meat and cheese) and about an hour, we arrived at a small farmhouse. The family is known to the company and they were expecting us. One this day we were met by about five little kids (I would guess age 2 to 10), their mother.....and a whole lot of dogs (only a few that actually lived there). I did not actually take any pictures of the house but it was a few rooms, and fitted with some solar panels (so decent electricity). They had ovens for cooking both inside and outside. We took a few moments to have some mate (caffeine infused drink, made by steeping dried leaves in hot water....you keep the leaves and just add more water) and some really yummy sugar covered fried pastry (yeah.....how could that not be good) and then headed out for a bit of a hike.
This dog actually came with us.....he belongs to the travel company and actually travelled with us from Mendoza. He hiked with us the whole way.....only took a few moments to go chase a pig. Those are goats in the picture but we also saw horses and cows. In addition we were treated to some pretty amazing condors flying overhead.
There was not actually a trail to follow so we were mostly just winging it. Yes, we were following Juan and Marcos, but they were mostly making it up. It was a pretty nice day to just kind of wander around, and really we just had to try to get back in about 3 hours.
Oh look, it's Bambi's Dad......ok maybe not. That is a pretty lonely looking wanaku. Wanaku are a type of llama that live in the area. He stood there for a long time just kind of watching over us.
Pretty breath taking view.
The group of us: Josh, Me, Jimmy, Kate and our guide Juan. This picture was taken by Marcos.
Looking down the valley. We were down by that river.
Another stop along the way.
Back down by the river. We crossed the river here......we made ourselves a little rock bridge.
Heading back down the mountain. Beautiful view.
Pretty dry and arid. You can understand why they need an artificial lake for irrigation.
We spent around three hours hiking and then headed back to the farmhouse for some lunch with our hosts. Some really amazing food (meat, cheese, bread, the works). I also spent some time playing with the cute little puppy.
How cute is this little puppy?
Eventually we had to head back into town after what was a really good day. Pretty tiring day as well. Luckily I was just going to have some dinner and go to bed.
Tomorrow.....would be a nice relaxing day.
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