Morro Negro

Today I went to a new place to hike outside of the city with Andi and Carolyn. We left the bus terminal at 8 am, took a bus for two hours past Potririllos and Cacheuta, where we've already been, and then drove through a lovely little canyon full of wood houses and actual trees on our way to Piedras Blancas. Probably every single tree in the city of Mendoza is planted. They are all in patterns and lined up perfectly along the roads. But this canyon was full of natural looking trees, and actual green plants. What a refreshing sight. All of the houses were little wood cabin style, and in the middle of a remote mountain town. I can't imagine the life living this far out of the city, with one bus a day that can take you into the downtown, a couple stores to buy food, and living on the rolling hills where most families are probably cattle farmers. It would be such a remote life. But this is probably closer to how I pictured the Argentine country side before arriving here. I didn't know Mendoza would be such a desert. And although Piedras Blancas was just as dry, with the mountains filled with thorny bushes and no trees, this little canyon was a very pleasant sight.

Quaint little mountain town of Piedras Blancas

Our hike was very similar to the rest of the hikes we've attempted in Mendoza. Trails just aren't marked here, and barely exist as they get mixed in with cattle trails, and disappear with dried up river beds. We followed the directions that we had from online, but got deterred right away as we couldn't find the trail head. A kind man who lived nearby showed us how to get on the trail through his property, so we ducked through his fence, passed a small creek, then got stuck at another fence he didn't tell us about. So I think we were lost from the start, but just started walking towards the mountain we knew was called Morro Negro. This involved more river crossings, and wading through a very swampy grassy area where horses and cattle were grazing. But our options were to either wade through the muddy water, or walk on a trail where the thorny plants are attacking us. Andi befriended a horse, missing her 25 horses and 500 cattle at home on her farm in Whyoming.

So we spent the next couple hours climbing to the top of a ridge that was in front of Morro Negro, trying to avoid more swamp, but electing thorns over swamp. Our legs are sufficiently scratched up, just like from all the other hikes we've done. Somehow we always end up just picking a hill to climb because the real trail is lost. So we followed cattle trails in a zig zag up the ridge, until we made it to the top, and walked along the ridge until we came to a really neat group of rock formations on top of one of the false summits. We explored these for a while, then headed down slowly as some darker clouds were approaching and it started to get chilly. Our descent was more difficult that the ascent. It involved a little more rock scrambling. But in the last 20 minutes or so we found the trail again and used that to get down.

It was a pretty full day adventure since we left at 8 am and got back at 7 pm. We were craving empenadas, and Andi told us about this place near her house that has 17 kinds of empenadas. We took a bus directly there for our post hike snack. They had all different kinds of carnes, verduras, quesos, tunas. I'll probably have to go back. Then I arrived home to find out we have no water again! Jose had warned us this might happen again this weekend because they are still fixing the pipe that broke, but I had hoped the water cutoff wouldn't start until tomorrow. And surprisingly, my host mom didn't know about it, so once again we weren't prepared. It's going to last at least through all of tomorrow. Turns out my host brother was showering when the water got shut off, so that used up a lot of the reserve water in our tank at the house, so we are being extra stingy about the reserve water this time. My house as been a victim the past two times, but a lot of other people's houses in the city haven't been cut off, so looks like I might be headed to Andi' to shower.