On my brother Matthews advice, we took a day trip from Mendoza to Puente del Inca and surrounds. It’s a beautiful drive up there from Mendoza, crazy eroded rock everywhere.
Along the way passing an old historic (pre Spanish) bridge, now mapped on OpenStreetMaps ;) . They diverted the river a little to keep the bridge from being eroded.
We also passed Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of Asia(6,961m), before heading steeply up to the (old) border crossing into Chile. They have now built a tunnel, so most traffic goes that way. We did see bikers coming up to the crossing though, so I’m not sure if they aren’t allowed through the tunnel, or if they just like a very long hot ascent.
The highlight thought was Puente del Inca. It’s not a bridge made by the Inca ;) but a natural phenomenon, except for the hotel which is built into it (long since abandoned, after upsetting the natural balance of the place). There are a couple of different theories as to how the bridge was formed. Maybe an ice-bridge formed, allowed the calcification to start, then melted. Another that there was a landslide slowing and altering the flow of the river, allowing the salts to precipitate, then the river re-established its natural course and the bridge was left in place. Who knows. Darwin also popped by when he was in the area.
The hotel was used for treating rheumatism, skin diseases and syphilis amongst others. They had to have fans to pump air around, as otherwise you’d suffocate from the high CO2 concentrations. I wonder at what point they worked that out? ;)
One thing to note is the train track (abandoned) which runs all the way up the valley. A huge feat of engineering I guess, but a little expensive to maintain I suppose. I wonder if they’ll turn it into a bike-ride someday?!
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