Above: Me and Gillian on Calle Aristedes drinking a bottle of Malbec red wine.
One of the best weekends of my life…perhaps I’m more outdoorsy than I thought.
Thursday and Friday of last week I was trying to coordinate a trip for me and my friend Gillian since it was our last weekend before our schedules really go into full swing. It was a little difficult since Thursday and Friday were national holidays, but I finally received confirmation via cellular that we would be picked up at 8:00 on Saturday morning for an excursion to Uspallata.
I must say I had a very nice date night with Gillian on Friday—neither one of us had really gone out to a restaurant for a nice dinner yet so we decided to splurge. We went to a restaurant on Aristedes, which is the popular street to go out on, and sat outside drinking the recommended Malbec wine and sharing empanadas de humita. Gillian taught me that humita is corn ground up before it is mature and mixed with peppers, milk, butter, cheese and tomatoes to name a few ingredients. A lovely night if I do say so myself.
USPALLATA PASS: Route that heads west and takes you straight to the mountains. Only route between Chile and Argentina for miles.
Saturday was the less interesting of the two days as we were on the bus touring the countryside for most of it, and although the views were absolutely breathtaking, both Gillian and I are more adventurous than that. But it was good to check that off our list.
Photos from the trip: CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL ALBUM (not below)
Some of the spectacular sites:
Potrerillos Dam: manmade lake for rafting, paragliding, hiking, sailing, etc.
Tambos: Resting places of Incans
Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer): statue representing a peace treaty between Chile and Argentina in 1904. About as close as you can get to Chile without going there…the altitude was so high that my ears were throbbing.
El Puente de Las Incas: bridge formed by geological changes over time; legend has it that an Incan prince bathed in it to cure his paralysis and that the color of the bridge comes from the Incans who were sacrificed to carry him across when there was no bridge. Morbid, no?
Cerro Aconcagua: the highest mountain in the Americas and in the southern hemisphere
I will post about my other weekend adventures later. However, to wrap up, I will say we were stalked by our bus photographer all day Saturday, who was lunging to take National Geographic shots of tourists in the Andes landscape—nothing short of hilarious. Also, I had my first milanesa for lunch. Milanese is more or less breaded meat, usually beef. I had a milanesa napolitana—more or less veal parmesan. Our meal on Saturday was a buffet so I didn’t have a portion nearly as big as the photo below or fries, but this would probably be a normal portion in Argentina. In addition to the milanesa, we had garlic with cold eggplant, which was surprisingly delicious!
I'm continuing to read and enjoy your postings, Carolyn. Very interesting about Cerro Aconcagua being the tallest mountain in the Americas. I didn't know that until you taught me! And I find it very interesting how close this mountain is to that major pass. I got out our trusty old World Book and looked up exactly where you were! - and are! (Both Uspallata and Aconcagua are noted on the map, as well as Mendoza, of course.) Looking forward to your next "installment"!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn Bruce
Thanks for the comment--love hearing back from people! How's the Bruce family doing? I expect you're busy helping plan for a wedding right now?
ReplyDeleteYes we are. And did you know that your dear mom and dad are Sarah and Thomas's marriage mentors?! (-that's probably not their exact title, but it's something like that :) - C.
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