We caught up with our mate Kalem from Wellington. He is also driving the Americas with his partner in crime Elise. Although they have been on roughly the same path as us over the last year, this is the first we have seen them on the road.
Dinner in Mendoza with Kalem and Elise (left), and new friends Seba and Ellie (right)
We visited the Andes west of Mendoza, and stayed in the pretty mountain town of Uspallata. It's where Seven Years in Tibet was filmed, a Brad Pitt epic that neither of us have seen (it's probably a pretty average film anyway but we may watch it now that we have been there).
We stayed there for a few days in order to check out Aconcagua, the biggest mountain in the Western and Southern Hemispheres (6962m or 22,837ft high). It is situated right off the main border crossing between Argentina and Chile, and pretty close to Santiago as the crow flies. Unfortunately it was white-out conditions when we visited and we couldn't see the mountain. We did see the Puente del Inca, an unusual natural land bridge over thermal springs with lots of minerals, hence the yellow and orange colors. It was absolutely freezing there (literally- it was snowing), so we didn't stay long.
Speaking of Chile and Argentina, we caught the final of the "Copa Americas" while in Uspallata. It's a four yearly soccer/football competition between nearly all south american countries with a few central/northern american countries usually invited. Argentina and Chile made the final, a big deal down here as the two countries are big rivals (like New Zealand and Australia, except more intense due to past/present political conflicts). Chile beat Argentina in a penalty shoot out. This was their first competition win, beating a decent Argentinian outfit led by superstar Lionel Messi. The Argentinians watching the game with us at the pub were pretty bummed, though I'm sure that in Chile it was celebratory pandemonium.
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