Manzano Historico

The Manzano Historico is 1 hour and 20 min. south of Mendoza by way of the Valle de Uco. When the pavement ends there is still a road that goes as deep into the Andes as your car, horse or feet will take you. The road starts out fine (for a gravel mountain road) but soon degrades into a bumpy jeep road that requires a 4X4 if you are wise or a small station wagon with very little horsepower if you lack common sense and you just want to keep going (that would be us).



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We did not go too far this time however. We just stopped anytime we saw something interesting or beautiful. The was an international parapente (para-sailing) competition going on while we were there. Further up the road there was plenty of snow-melt cruising down the river and wildflowers among the cacti.

Hail!

About 10 days ago we saw the biggest pieces of hail in our lives! These things were huge. In a neighboring area they got as big as golf balls and smashed 100s of windshields. The kids were in the pool when it hit. We found out they can move really fast when they want too!

Aconcagua

Here are some photos from our recent daytrip to Aconcagua National Park. The mountain doesn't look like it but it is the highest peak outside of the Himalayas! We didn't climb it but it was incredible to see it and all the surrounding mountains. Aconcagua is 22,840 ft above sea level. We were only slightly above 10,000 feet above sea level in these pictures.