Puente del Inca & Penitentes, Argentina

If Los Antiguos was smaller than a breadbox, then these towns are smaller than a thimble--put together. They are less like towns and more like a few scattered hostels, outdoor markets and restaurants alongside the highway to Chile.

Puente del Inca:

Penitentes (4 miles down the road):



When we got there, it was a windy evening and felt like we had landed in an eery ghost town with half the places shut down because it's low tourist season. There was only a handful of people around, and it took us a little while to find them after our bus dropped us off in front of the gas station.

We finally located our hostel, and we were its only guests. Miriam was inside awaiting our arrival:

It was sort of nice to be in the middle of absolutely nowhere, surrounded by huge mountains on every side and under a night sky scattered with the brightest stars.

Pascale crossing the highway to go back to our hostel:


So what brings us here? The tallest mountain in South America: Aconcagua. Its name is an indigenous ¨Quechua¨word, which means ¨Stone Guardian.¨ At an altitude of nearly 7000 meters (23,000 feet), it is the highest mountain outside the Himalayas. (Aconcagua is the one in the middle with the snow.)

We know what you're thinking: it doesn't look like it's the tallest mountain around. In Aconcagua's defense, it is far away here and surrounded by other VERY tall mountains.

Can you see Pascale in this picture?



Another reason we made this stop: Puente del Inca boasts these colorful thermal springs and bridge. Pascale noted their resemblance to squash.



Notice the abandoned church in the background:



We had seen everything in about a day and again headed out just before the rain and clouds came in. We were lucky enough to find this nice little sherpa to carry our things to the bus stop (gas station)....



More pics: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QcN2TFq0bM4y&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5