16th
Dec
During the night, at 2.15 am to be precise, I was awoken
by the loudest noise on the roof above
me – Hail and heavy, heavy rain !! Now I
know what it must feel like to live in a house with a corrugated iron roof ! This was rain like we have not seen during the
rest of the trip, and my first thoughts were to check what was going on outside
with our chairs and stuff. Fortunately
the back of the car awning was under a very robust and water tight thatched
roof, so most things weren’t getting too wet, but I did have to quickly lower
one corner of the awning so water would not pool in it and collapse it. Once I had done all I could, it was back to
bed, keep an eye on the roof for leaks, and keep my fingers crossed !
The rain eventually stopped, and I got back to sleep – It
seems once again that my little fly sheet I had made for the roof worked well,
and everything inside was perfectly dry !
Outside was a different story – Being a mud ground with no grass, the heavy
rain had splattered this up the sides of the tent, and half way up the car as
well ! So there was quite a lot of
washing down everything to get the mud off before we could pack up and head
back on the road to Uspallata. And coming down into Mendoza, the extent of
the storm was very apparent, with large amounts of gravel and mud washed down
across the road, and even in town there was water everywhere, in some case due
to backed up drains disgorging water across the road. This had been one big rain storm !!
The road back to Uspallarta was the same one we had
driven the day before, so one would think that it would be a bit of a Ho Hum
day. Not so – It is amazing how different a road can be when you drive it in
the opposite direction ! Just shows how
much you miss when you can’t see backwards on a road. Once we got a cross the flat plains outside
Mendoza (where the eagles were still hanging around on the telegraph poles !), coming
towards the little town of Potrerillos, the view of the Lake Mendoza
was so different from last time.
And all the rock formations on the gorge sides were different –
Different angle, and a different light since it was a different time of
day.
Yesterday we had noticed a road going around the lake,
and we wondered where it went to – It didn’t seem to be on any of our maps, so
being the inquisitive souls we are, we set off down the road. A beautiful new road, with new double yellow
lines down the middle, new white lines on the sides of the tarmac, freshly
painted kerbs, brand new bridges, and new and unmarked concrete barriers on the
sides of the road and the bridges. Even
several well-engineered cuttings through rock which were no low cost
items. Where did this road go to ? We came to a roundabout, with signs to tell
us the road went to Mendoza, and down to “Lake access” – but when we got to the
roundabout, the two side turnings just ended in dirt and went no where. So we carried on straight, on this lovely
road with great lake views – Another roundabout,
same thing ! How weird.
Then we crossed another bridge ……………….and the road just stopped facing a
big mountain ! No signs saying “Road
closed” or “Road doesn’t exist”. No “stop”
signs to warn you – Nothing. Nada
!! If you didn’t have headlights on at
night, you might just drive straight into the side of the mountain – Even the
perfect and new road markings continued right up to the edge of the rock ! It was as if they had been building this road
and suddenly come to this cliff face and decided they had had enough now, and
would take their equipment and all go somewhere
else because this hill was just
too big ! I will say this – They did it
with safety in mind - The double yellow
central lines (no overtaking) continued right up to the rock face, so at least
you wouldn’t get anyone overtaking another car as they hit the side of the
mountain ! Looking at our electronic
maps later (“Maps with Me” – a great App which allows you incredible detail any
where in the world when offline – Way better than Google maps which we used
previously) we could see that there is in fact apparently a major road out of
Mendoza to the other side of this mountain – It is just that they haven’t linked
up yet !!
Stunned, we drove back towards Potrerillos – This road
was some 10 kms long, it was brand new, and was better than any other road in
town, and they had spent a LOT of money on it – What was the deal ? I guess I will just have to go back in 10
years time and find out if they ever moved that mountain and joined the roads
up !!
Back in town, and still with some time on our hands as our
destination of Uspallarta was not much further down the road, we decided to try
to find the ski fields that we had read about and looked for briefly (and
without luck) yesterday. There was this 5500 metre high mountain there, so it
shouldn’t be THAT hard to find ! After wandering through the dirt roads of
town, we eventually found the road to “Las Vegas” – Yup, that’s the name of the
village on the way up to the mountain. We
also found out why we couldn’t find the “road off to the right” that was
indicated on the maps and which led from the main road to the mountain – You actually
had to turn LEFT off the main road, wander off down through the village, and
then the road went out under the main road, up to the mountains - No sign posts, of course !! So off we went – A great little road winding
through some very Scottish Highlands kind of foothills, and with
the weather
starting to close in around us like the Scotch Mist of the Highlands, it was
all very evocative. After maybe 10 kms
the tarmac road stopped and we were on a dirt track, but we kept going – This was
a great ‘splore !! We passed through
little groupings of very ski-lodge looking houses – One couldn’t really even
call them hamlets – They were just groups of houses, then nothing for a while,
then a few more. Some were new and still
being constructed – Obviously taking their opportunity during their summer –
Although the weather was bad today, and we never saw a soul working on
them. Everything was boarded up tight.
We could see on our maps that the road got VERY twisty,
with a section of severe switchbacks, and it was still another 10 kms or so to
the end of the road, which by now was also starting to become quite rough and
muddy. After following the road up the mountain
for about 40 minutes, and with the rain getting heavier and the mist closing in
around us, we decided to turn back. If
we had known for certain that there had been a coffee and empanada shop open at the top, we
might have continued, but we had not seen a soul on the road or in any of the
houses. So we will leave that for
another day, but it certainly is a wild and woolly place to have ski fields –
It was down to about 4 degrees C today by the time we turned back, and this is
summertime !
Lots of wild roses and big purple Scottish thistles
beside the road on the way down, and lovely views over rushing streams that
passed under old stone bridges. I would
love to see this place on a sunny day !
As we came back down into the little town of Potrerillos, the rain stopped so we stopped
by the river and had a picnic before heading into the village – Where we found
a great big camp site with all facilities !
It wasn’t quite the right time of day for us to stop, but good to find a
camp site here so that if one did want to spend a few days in the area
exploring, there was a base to stay in.
From there we followed the winding and spectacular Rio
Mendoza valley back towards Uspallarta.
At one stage we spotted a couple of rafts coming down the river filled
with people, so turned around and got ahead of them so we could watch them come
down some rapids. They were having a
great time, and when they saw us taking photos they
waved up and hollered
! There was also a lone kayak with them –
He was obviously very experienced, doing eskimo rolls etc as he came through
the rapids. We presume he was a guide, there in case anyone fell out of one of
the rafts, so he could make sure they were OK.
Later we passed a big 40 ft refrigerated semi trailer (just the trailer
part) tipped over and smashed up beside the road – Obviously a recent accident
on this dangerous road. I hope they got
all the refrigerated goods out before they spoiled !
On up the valley into Uspallarta, passing old ruined
railway bridges beside the road (and continuing to wonder about the story behind
this amazing railway line), and though the many tunnels hewn through the rock,
and past amazing colour variations in
the valley sides along the way. At one
point there were 5 separate tunnels visible through a single cliff face ahead
of us - The current road tunnel, and then
presumably a couple of former (now disused) road tunnels and a couple of old
rail tunnels – Amazing sight though. Then
before we knew it, we were back in Uspallarta, where we stopped in the
Parillada restaurant (where we had
enjoyed our BBQ lunch at a couple of days
earlier) and had some coffee and cake and had access to wifi so we could check
our emails after a couple of days on the road. We also went into this
restaurant because they had changed some currency for us previously at a pretty
favourable rate (ie a LOT better than the official bank rate !), but this time
for some reason which I couldn’t work out, this time they would not change any
! I really do not understand this
Argentinian currency situation. The ATM’s
won’t work with Visa cards so you can’t get money out of them, and the banks
themselves are very unwilling to change dollars, and even if they did you only
get 8 to the dollar. So you always look
for cambios (change people) everywhere, (but so far haven’t found one !) who
will give you up to 12.5 pesos, or alternatively you just keep asking in shops
and restaurants who, when you find one, will give you about 11 pesos for the
dollar. But it is a daily hassle trying
to get local currency here !! Never
mind, Chile tomorrow, so we are OK for now.
We set up in the camp site again, and when I went to plug
in my computer to charge it, found my adaptor plug still in the campground
socket !! I must have left it there
yesterday, so lucky to find it was still there !! Had a relaxing afternoon
slowly starting to sort out things to take with us back to Aus and get the car
packed ready to leave it. A lovely sunny
afternoon and light breeze was perfect for us to dry out the pop top and rear
awning after the soaking it had all received in Mendoza last night, so that it
would not all go mouldy while the car is parked in Santiago for 3 weeks. There was a group of fairly wild looking lads
and their girl friends who pulled up beside us in a very rough looking (and
sounding) Alfa Romeo, plus a motorbike, and pitched their tents – They eventually
came over to ask if they could borrow a hammer from us to put their pegs in,
and once they started chatting, they were intrigued by our vehicle and our
journey, and spent some time asking us about everything and taking photos of
the car ! They had come over from Buenos
Aires and were just travelling around for a while.
Eventually got to sleep, although the lads next door had
obviously had a few beers in town and were having a bit of a chat and sing song
for a while before they eventually shut it down !!
Pics are here !
You have no idea how jealous of you I am I live such a monotonous life and I have been dying to go on an adventure for such a long time now, this post just motivated me so much to do that soon.
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