We left Santiago on Monday, April 13th and headed east to Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina. Over the past three months we’ve been on many bus trips, and we’ve had a variety of experiences to say the least, but this one definitely comes out on top because of the amazing views we had along the way. The journey took six hours even though we were only going 200 miles because we had to cross the Andes in addition to going through immigration in both Chile and Argentina.

Reaching more than 10,000 feet in elevation, the road cut through long tunnels and zigzagged through mountain terrain. On our ascent we went up an impressive series of switchbacks, each turn steeper and scarier than the last. The bus company was called “El Rapido”, and had we been thinking when we bought the tickets we might have used a different company. Guess who’s driver thought he was on a race track?

We were traveling on a beautiful, clear day with 360 degree views all around us. Fortunately we were able to get a glimpse of the snow capped Mt Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas at nearly 23,000 feet.

For hours we stared out the bus windows in awe. There were two couples sitting in front of us from Quebec, and they were just as excited as we were to have such spectacular views. It was fun having others appreciate the scenery as much as we did.

Guess who’s excited to be back in Argentina?