While we were really into wine tasting in Mendoza, but we also enjoy history, so we decided to book an Andes Tour through Cultura Cercana to mix it up a bit. The Andes mountains extend some 7000km (4300 miles), and represent some very deep history in South America. Tripadvisor has a similar Andes trip that’s available that encompasses some of what we saw that day.
The guide the company we contracted with provides is a local who understands the history and culture of the area.
Normally a tour will require you to meet up with them at a designated location, but with this tour, the guide picks you up in a 4×4 Land Rover where you are staying in our case, Posada Cavieres Wine Farm, a small BnB located in wine country that is quaint with a wonderful host couple which we will highlight in another post.
Once we left the City of Mendoza, the road quickly turned to gravel consistency, with large rocks helping us understand the need for the off road vehicle.
After traveling about 2 hours, the guide stopped in the middle of the road, set up a table, put out some pastries, and made tea.
Shortly thereafter, we encountered some cows, in the road of course.
Then we saw some llamas on the side of the road.
Our first “tourist” stop was Mirador del Balcon, a canyon with cliffs on both sides, dead ending after a short walk. Above there was a balcony that you could look down into the canyon, but we weren’t to find that out until later in the day.
It was near there that we saw the influence that Charles Darwin (yep) had on the region as there was a plaque placed in 2009 commemorating “El Origen de las Especies” (the Origin of the Species) and the bicentennial of his birth, where the discovery of the first fossil araucarias of South America was pointed out.
Amidst the first ruins of the old mining camp we viewed, there was a restored outpost that looked like it been used as both a general store and a restaurant (mess hall?).
We stopped there to have an Argentinian BBQ paired with a nice bottle of local wine for lunch.
One of the highlights was an old mining site (see aerial photo) which as set up to extract lead, silver, and zinc. The population included 4500 workers at its peak. As would be expected, the site had everything that a small city would have; housing (upper and lower class), water (well), commercial buildings, manufacturing areas, a wall for protection against others trying to invade.
When we finished trekking the mine site, the guide took us to a vista where we got to see the top of the canyon that we had walked that morning, but we had a little bit of a walk to get there. Quite interesting seeing the canyon from both below and above.
On the return part of the trip, we traversed a different road that had numerous switchbacks, with some incredible vistas, we even encountered an eagle as we were driving.
Also on the way down/back, we got to experience “365 curva” which is an incredible set of switchbacks on the road that seemed endless. Although we did not use Viator (they are a great tour firm), they do offer a package to experience it. It was breath taking with spectacular views. Near the end we were there during sunset, so it’s a little bit different than if you see it during full light.
All in all, the scenary alone was worth the trip, with the history being quite interesting to hear about.