Mendoza, Argentina

 Wine Tasting

 Lunch

 Lunch

 Aconcagua

 Inca Bridge

Puente del Inca (Spanish "The Inca Bridge"), is a natural arch that forms a bridge over the Vacas River, a tributary of the Mendoza River. It is located in Mendoza Province, Argentina, near Las Cuevas.
Puente del Inca is also the name of the nearby hot springs. Scientists speculate that interaction of extreme elements like ice and hot springs was involved in the origin of the formation. They suppose that in ancient times ice covered the river and acted as support for avalanches of snow, dust and rocks. So the dust over the ice over the river would have served as a path for the sulfurous water and petrified the surface, so when the snow melted, the bridge remained by itself.^{[citation needed]}
In March 1835, Charles Darwin visited the site, and made some drawings of the bridge with large stalactites.
In the early 20th century there was a large thermal resort and spa that used the hot springs to cure certain illnesses (a spa still survives further down the river at Cacheuta). There was a railway station, which is still standing, and tourists arrived by train to the resort. This was one of the last Argentine stations of the Transandine Railway before the train continued into Chile, traveling through a long tunnel under the Andes.

 Aconcagua

Aconcagua (Spanish pronunciation: [akoŋˈkaɣwa]) is the highest mountain outside Asia, at 6,961 metres (22,838 ft), and by extension the highest point in both the Western Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.^[1] It is located in the Andes mountain range, in the Mendoza Province, Argentina, and lies 112 kilometres (70 mi) northwest of its capital, the city of Mendoza. The summit is also located about 5 kilometers from San Juan Province and 15 kilometers from the international border with Chile. The mountain itself lies entirely within Argentina and immediately east of Argentina's border with Chile.^[3] Its nearest higher neighbor is Tirich Mir in the Hindu Kush, 16,520 kilometres (10,270 mi) away. It is one of the Seven Summits.
Aconcagua is bounded by the Valle de las Vacas to the north and east and the Valle de los Horcones Inferior to the west and south. The mountain and its surroundings are part of the Aconcagua Provincial Park. The mountain has a number of glaciers. The largest glacier is the Ventisquero Horcones Inferior at about 10 kilometers long, which descends from the south face to about 3600 meters in altitude near the Confluencia camp.^[4] Two other large glacier systems are the Ventisquero de las Vacas Sur and Glaciar Este/Ventisquero Relinchos system at about 5 kilometers long. The most well-known is the north-eastern or Polish Glacier, as it is a common route of ascent.