We are in Uspallata, Argentina, a small moutain town on the Argentine-Chilean border. Its claim to fame is that this is the area where ¨Seven Days in Tibet" was filmed. The slogan on Uspallata´s welcome signs is ¨the city of the movie.¨ In climate, landscape, and flora, Uspallata is suprisingly similar to Grand Junction, Colorado, in the late summer, which is the season here right now. Uspallata is just below Mount Aconcagua, 22,841 feet, the tallest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. We made a short visit to one of our favorite Mendoza wineries, Bodega Weinert where we sampled and purchased some of their varietals . After a typical lunch at a "tenedor libre", an all you can eat buffet with more beef than you can imagine, we drove around some of the vineyards but were unable to visit any more of them without advance reservations. As we said before, Argentines take their afternoon seistas VERY seriously.


Our wonderful, wonderful housesitters, Charles and Richard, sent us a recent photo of Miss Bonnie, who is getting lots of exercise. A blow-by-blow account of Bonnie and her new toy is on a new feature, Miss Bonnie´s dog blog











At first glance Mount Aconcagua does not look particularly impressive despite being nearly 23,000 feet above sea level, but then you remember that the park entrance is higher than any of Colorado´s tallest peaks. This view is from the south side and very near the border with Chile. The south side is reported to be nearly impossible to climb, so most routes to the summit are from the north side.... and no, we did not attempt to climb it.