Yesterday we were picked up before sunrise - we were headed deep into the high Andes - close to the Chilean border.

We headed into the 'lower Andes' and met the Mendoza river which we followed through some fantastic scenery until we stopped in a village called Uspallata (Alt. 1750m) to get some warm trousers and boots, the day before we were there it was -23oC here, when we arrived it was about -8oC!!

We carried on going higher and higher, following the valley of the river until we reached a ski resort called Los Penitentes (Alt 2580m), this place has a maximum vertical drop of over 700m on its runs. We got a chairlift half-way up the runs, where we had an amazing view of he valley below us. The snow was very deep and great to play about in Sarah kept dropping in waist deep!! It was extremely cold here about -12oC, although with our boots, extra trousers, 5 layers on top, gloves, hats and scarves we were snuggly warm!!

After this we went up to a natural bridge - Puente del Inca - about 8km west of Los Penitentes. This bridge spans the river Mendoza at an altitude of 2720m and is quite amazing when you consider is was formed naturally. It had some huge icicles, dangling from it. The surrounding rock is very yellow due to the amount of sulphur there is in the water coming from the geothermal springs which eminate very close to the bridge. Because of these springs there used to bee a huge hotel/spa complex that was destroyed by an avalanche in 1965, strangely the chuch situated next to the complex survived without any damage and is still there today.

Our final sight of the day was a viewing point for the highest mountain in the Americas and the whole of the western hemisphere - Aconcagua, 6960m. This was remarkable - our viewing point was about 3000m high and about 65km from the snowfield you can see on the photos. The size of this mountain is unbelievable, it is so much higher than the surrounding mountains it had a 'halo' of cloud surrounding its summit. As we were there in winter climbing it is too difficult, however from Dec-Mar it is an incredibly popular mountain to climb.

We had an fantastic day, it was so nice to get out of the city for a whole day too - we are begining to get a bit 'citied out'!

Today we are again killing time waiting for a bus, off to Salta - our last stop in Argentina, 16 hours away!

Lots of Love A&S xxx