Aconcagua: finalizing details in Mendoza

A big sigh of relief as my bags finally showed up at the hotel late yesterday afternoon. Later that evening, we were treated to a nice dinner at the Francesco Barbera Ristorante in the heart of the city of Mendoza. We dined in the beautiful garden with Todd Burleson, the owner of Alpine Ascents along with Garrett Madison, Lakpa Rita Sherpa & Michael Horst as we’ll all be on Everest later on this Spring. The food was really good and the Rutini Reserva Malbec wine was even better.

Francesco Barbera Ristorante

Braised Lamb with Malbec Wine Sauce.

In the morning, I grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed out with Garrett and Ari to complete our permit process in order to climb Cerro Aconcagua. It was a fairly simple and quick process. We then headed back to the hotel, packed up our gear and left by private bus to the town of Puente Del Inca. We checked into our hostelleria and later organized our mule loads. At dinner we were served some mystery “Matambre” meat that evidently didn’t sit to well with me. A late night bathroom call was a necessity, although we did enjoy some local Malbec wine. Tomorrow we officially start our expedition and get on our 3-day trek to Aconcagua Base Camp.

Puente Del Inca.