Mendoza, Argentina

Sorry for the lull in posting. This last week found us visiting with our friend Agustina in her hometown of Mendoza. It is a large city of a few million with tree lined streets and many walking malls where you can sit, drink coffee, and watch the world go by. It was hot, hot, hot there. Most days were in the mid-nineties.
Navigating a foreign city isn´t as easy as we hoped for a couple of country mice like us, so we are happier to be in quieter territory now. The highlight of the week in Mendoza was traveling into the Andes to the climber´s basecamp of Aconcagua. The first night we "slept" on the floor in a tent belonging to an expedition from Germany or something. Agustina is more or less the queen of Aconcagua. She knows all the rangers, the climbing guides, and it seems like everyone else up at basecamp. She is currently writing the land management plan for the entire park, so she gets around.
Besides the amazing view of Aconcagua we hiked to, my favorite part was the ruins of an Inca ceremonial site. It was closed to the public, but Agustina took us up there. The small circular ruins were situated perfectly in line with the peaks of two sacred mountains that were 30 kilometers apart. Our compass verified the amazing accuracy the Incas had 1000 years ago.
We´re currently in the small town of Malargue staying at a hostel. This town has a lack of USB ports in it´s computers, so sorry about the lack of picture. These computers are worse than the ones up at Spruce. It is hard to imagine, I know. I´ll make up for it next time. Really.