the next morning, we had to get up at 5:45am to get on the road and up over the pass before they closed down the east-bound lanes at 7am. we ran into the portillo's st. bernard guard dog in the early morning as we were leaving. he was sniffing around in the living room during the night. the light was coming up quickly on the hotel, even though we woke in total darkness. the hotel, and the lake are intense, especially when there are not people around to ruin it all.
st. bernard at portillo hotel, portillo, chile by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
hotel portillo, portillo, chile by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
laguna del inca, portillo, chile by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
eventually, i wound up in the emigration/customs complex for entry into chile. there was a pretty serious line that took about 1.5 hours to pass through. then it was about a half hour inside before we were release with the appropriate stamps and documents into... ARGENTINA!!
argentinian immigration, horcones, argentina by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
argentinian immigration, horcones, argentina by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
route 7 coming down from the pass was big and beautiful.
the andes are a young mountain range, and it shows in the complexity and variety of color that you see in the mountains.
puente del inca hot spring, argentina by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
route 7, argentina (west of uspallata) by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
route 7, argentina (west of uspallata) by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
route 7, argentina (west of uspallata) by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
route 7, argentina (west of uspallata) by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
route 7, argentina (west of uspallata) by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
ted, route 7, argentina (west of uspallata) by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
arriving in mendoza, food and wine were on minds, but finding lodging was a priority. all the hostels were booked due to the heavy summer hiking traffic heading up to aconcagua mountain. some dutch hikers that i ran into gave me a tip on a double bed room about 10 blocks from where we were looking, so we b-lined for it. no fuss when rooms are tight. we arrived, got settled, and headed out to a nice dinner of argentinian steak (very good), wine (very good) and papas fritas.
los haroldso vina, mendoza, argentina by
porkandcorn, on Flickr
central mendoza, argentina by
porkandcorn, on Flickr