Aconcagua

Buen Dia Amigos! Good day friends!

We have had a lot of fun since we left Buenos Aires! Nathan and I took a bus to the city of Mendoza, which is about 14 hours west of Buenos Aires. There we got to see an old friend of ours named Agustina and her husband, Seba. We had a lot of fun seeing the lovely parks in the city and visiting vineyards, which are farms that grow grapes.

The most exciting part of our stay, though, was our trek into the Cordillera de los Andes, or the Andes mountain range. The Andes mountains are the longest chain of mountains in the world. They stretch all the way from the top of the South American continent to the bottom. The highest peak in the range is called Cerro Aconcagua. Cerro means "mountain" in Spanish and Aconcagua means either "always snow" or "pillar of stone" in Native America languages. Aconcagua stands at 6960 meters, which is almost 23,000 feet! It is the highest peak in all of the Americas, both North and South America combined, and in fact is the highest mountain in the entire western hemisphere!

Agustina and Seba both work in the park where Aconcagua lies. Seba is a park ranger and his job is to greet visitors to the park and tell them about park rules and collect permits. He also makes sure the park stays clean and safe for its visitors. Here he is greeting us at the entrance to the park:

Can you guess what he said? He said, "Hello! My name is Seba. Welcome to Aconcagua Park!"

Agustina researches the plants, animals and cultural heritage of the park and helps to develop management plans for the conservation of its resources. Here she is standing at the base of Aconcagua:



She said, "Hello! I am Agustina and this is Aconcagua, the highest mountain in all of the Americas. I work in this park." You know what´s really cool? Agustina has been to Circleville! Six years ago she worked at The Mountain Institute up at Spruce and that´s where Nathan and I met her. She has very good memories of Circleville and Spruce Knob.

Here is one more picture of us making our trek to view the south face of Aconcagua. We hiked up to around 13,000 feet and had to walk very slowly because at that altitude it is a little harder to breathe.