Now that I’m back in Buenos Aires, I think I can honestly say I am incredibly happy our program offered a spring break week for us. At first, I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about it, since it seemed to be an obligatory time to travel far and spend lots of money. However, I now realize that getting away from the city for 10 days gave me a chance to clear my head of the routine in Buenos Aires and start to appreciate this city again. Not only that, but I got the chance to see some truly amazing places in Chile and Argentina. So, here’s the a recap of the second part of my trip:
We returned back to Santiago for a day on our way home. We stayed in a very good hostel and went to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, a large hill in the city, at the top of which is a statue of the Virgin Mary. TThe view from the top was awesome, although very similar to what I posted before when we hiked up another hill in the city. On our way down from this hill, we found a small hiking path to go down. I’m pretty sure there must have been another, more common way down, because the way we took was slightly dangerous.
After crossing the border back into Argentina late at night, we stopped in Mendoza. One day we went whitewater rafting and ziplining in the Andes, and this is the gorgeous sight that we saw. Although it was our most expensive day of the trip, it was very much worth it. Mendoza itself was a very small city with only a couple streets. It is quite interesting that, although this town is incredibly well known, it is known for everything around it, not the actual town.
Now, it’s back to studying in Buenos Aires. Only 6 more weeks in Argentina!
Location: Mendoza, Argentina
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here are a few more elevations from Wiki…
was the picture in your earlier post of the Ojos del Salado? Were you are high as 6000 m (19 685 ft)? It looked liked the road was quite high in the mountains from your picture.
Southern Andes
* Llullaillaco (6,738 m), Argentina/Chile
* Ojos del Salado (6,891 m), highest mountain in Chile, second highest of the Andean peaks
* Monte Pissis (6,774), Argentina
* Cerro Mercedario (6,720 m), Argentina
* Aconcagua (6,962 m), Argentina, highest mountain outside Asia
* Volcán Antuco (2,979), Chile
* Villarrica (2,847), Chile
* Lanin Volcano (3,776m), Argentina/Chile
* Tronador (3,491), Argentina/Chile
* Cerro San Valentin (4,058), Chile
* Cerro Torre (3,133 m), Patagonia, Argentina/Chile. Long considered amongst the hardest mountains to climb in the world.
* Fitz Roy (3,375 m), Argentina/Chile
* Monte Sarmiento (2,300), Chile
Seeing your pictures made me wonder about elevation…here is what Google tells me…
State College 1200 ft
Mt. Nittany about 2000 ft
highest peak in the Andes 22,841 ft
Mendoza 2310 ft
Santiago 1706 ft
Buenos Aires 13 m
Does the elevation affect you? What was the highest elevation you were at?