Today was our day to get whatever Luke deemed missing from our gear check. For me that was a foam sleeping pad in addition to the air pad I’d brought, and some extra food. After my previous experience trying to eat frozen snickers on Elbrus in high wind, I opted for purely energy goo’s and chews this time for rest break food, thinking I’d be smart and eat something easy. The guides will be cooking our meals so that’s covered. Unfortunately Luke pointed out that goo’s only give you a short burst of energy and would leave me dead in the water after about 20 minutes. With 1-1.5 hours between breaks, I’d also need something with a lot of Protein that would burn longer.
After breakfast at the hotel we all walked over to the permit place to stand in line & pay our fees which came to $750 . Omar got half off being from the Dominican Republic, though he graciously treated all of us to ice cream later. Thanks Omar!
Weather in Mendoza was super hot – 100 degrees and humid. The area we were in was filled with shops and restaurants, and the streets were lined with large shady trees so it was actually quite pleasant, despite the ungodly temperature.
Leaving Martin(aka Tincho) to finalize our permits, we walked over to the gear store, which was surprisingly well-furnished. You could pretty much buy everything you needed for an Aconcagua climb here – for a ridiculous premium. I paid $70 for a sleeping pad that was worth $20. It’s highway robbery, but these guys know they have a monopoly here. No one flying around the world to climb a mountain is going to turn back due to high gear prices… probably
Later in the day, Alison, Huey, Greg and I caught a cab to the local grocery store called Jumbo to get our food supplies. It certainly lived up to its namesake, similar to a Walmart back at home. I ended up with a bunch of almond-filled chocolate bars and a couple of boxes of salted peanuts, bummed that they didn’t have Reese’s. What kind of self-respecting grocery store doesn’t have Reese’s?
Last item of the day was a group dinner where everyone had steaks that I heard were very good. I had a pasta that was…not great. Can’t expect a steakhouse in Argentina to have good veggie food, right? Tomorrow we hit the road on a three-hour drive to Los Penitentes, the last bastion of civilization that we’d see for the next two weeks.
Planetary Muffin Expeditions 