Tuesday in the Andes

We were up early ready to head over the border to Argentina. Our guide, Christian was picking us up from the apartment at 8am, so Anne & Eddie met us and we headed off together. There was also a Mexican girl on the trip with us.
We headed out of Santiago and our first stop was at a historical site called Chacabuco where some fight had occured. The monument was quite impressive. A few minutes after we pulled up some cars pulled up looking very official. There were men in army uniforms all saluting some dignatory in a black car. We've no idea what this was all about.
While heading out along the main road we were stopped several times by road works and not just for a few minutes at a time, some times it was a good 10 or 15 minutes. Eventually we made it to the border crossing and had to have our passports checked to allow us to enter Argentina then headed off to the Puente del Inca a spanish word for Inca bridge. It was a bridge naturally formed from ice and sand. There used to be hot water springs here as well and a hotel, however several years ago an avalanche destroyed the hotel and the springs were too dangerous to use.
We drove on a little way further through a nice scenic valley. The mountains were high up above us, although we had climbed a fair way by this stage up some more switch backs, following hundreds of trucks and buses.
Our driver took us back to the customs area where we had lunch. This consisted of lomo (beef) ham, cheese and tomatoe in a bun. They call this a sandwich!. I should have asked for just cheese and tomato as the site of the beef made my stomach churn again. I couldn't eat all of it, but enough to stop starving myself.
The next stop was at Aconcagua. At 6,962 metres (22,841 ft), Cerro Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas, and the highest mountain outside Asia. We did a short 15 minute walk here and nearly froze. It was so bitterly cold, but the spectacular view made up for it. Back in the van, we made our way to the Portillo Ski Centre for afternoon tea. Another spectacular view, this time of a frozen lake with snowy mountains all around. It reminded us a lot of Lake Louise in Canada.

It was now time to head home, I kept falling asleep as we got caught up in the road works again and spent some 15 minutes just stopped, waiting to get through. Not sure how there system works here, but it doesn't appear to work very consistently. It was after 8pm before we got home and I wasn't too long out of bed again that night.
This morning Bob and I both slept in, we were both stuffed - again - we've been on the go a lot and showing signs of ageing :-)) I've also lost weight having not eaten much over the last few days.
I went off with Melissa and Harley to play group, while Bob stayed home with the maid and baby Arden. I forgot to take the chip from my camera out of the computer, so there were no photos taken at play group today.