Up and Over the Andes

Leaving Mendoza and the vineyards behind, we headed out for a beautiful and very challenging ride up into the majestic Andes Mountains. The first day, our route took us on a big climb, approximately 2480 meters (about 7000+ feet), the first portion on pavement and the remainder on a rocky dirt road. Jim rode the pavement portion and I continued up the rest of the way to the pass mainly riding on my own. It was tough but glorious. Beautiful blue skies, mild temperatures and little wind until the top. I am a very slow climber especially since they removed part of my right lung and love climbing by myself so I don’t frustrate a fellow rider. I had all day to make it and the staff brought by water and energy bars to fuel the way.

Puma warnings
Looking back on the first part of the climb

I will say that this ascent has been a highlight of the trip so far. Not only were the stark mountains quite beautiful but I also encountered my first guanacos of the trip.

Please forgive the narration for my grandkids 😇

The view from the top was awesome and then we descended to a hamlet at about 8000 feet for the night.

I need to hit the hay because we have a six day stint of riding starting in the morning. There was more drama as we climbed higher yet and crossed into Chile before descending out of the Andes and into Santiago. Hopefully we’ll have some wifi along the way so I can complete the story. In the meantime, we miss you all. Ciao!

9 thoughts on “Up and Over the Andes”

  1. Barb, you are amazing. And strong and tetermined. Which is why you get immense satifaction and glorious views of places few people see. And I love the fotos, thanks. Jutta

    Sent from my iPad

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  3. PS:
    The bottom cartoon of the puma warning sign looks to me like that the final piece of advice is that if all else fails hand over the kid to the puma!

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  4. The scenery just gets more and more stunning. The nearly two and a half thousand meter climb was worth it, even though I can’t imagine even walking up that much! Very well done. The wildlife is amazing too. An encounter with a guanaco is probably better than a puma though. Enjoy the mountains.

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