Star Gate & Arenales

After a breathtaking flight from Bariloche, we reached the northern terminus of our Argentine adventure. After a quick resupply in Mendoza, we set off to meet our Workaway hosts in the Valley of Uco (El Valle del Uco).

After travelling for 16 years, our hosts Richard and Catherine decided to settle down in Los Arboles de Villegas, a quiet village among the vines of one of the most famous wine regions in the world. With an unobstructed view of the Andes, it was no wonder they decided to build their beautiful home here. We spent the week in paradise (“Star Gate”) in exchange for some help around their property. Dinners were accompanied by amazing stories and interesting philosophical conversations that really made us feel at home and like family.

Mel showing this weed who’s boss

Our hosts also happened to live very close to an amazing Argentine rock climbing destination, Los Arenales. Their neighbor, Nacho, authored the guide book of the area and he and his wife invited us to their home for a training session on their rad bouldering cave. Camalot, their dog, greeted us as we arrived. Meeting Nacho and his new family (they had a tiny baby!) brought Mel and I a lot of joy! Even with the new child, they’re still climbing hard and finding all sorts of adventure in their life.

When the weather was right, we headed toward Los Arenales canyon with the best mechanic in Mendoza (according to Richard), who was going up to a popular sport climbing crag with his friends. After a fun crag day in a mysterious fog, they kindly drove us to the mouth of the Los Arenales canyon proper, where we trekked the rest of the way to the refugio. At the refugio, we reunited with our climbing pals from Frey, Matt and Hayden. They’re a couple badasses from Estes Park, who were travelling south to north pretty much along our same route.

The approaches to the climbs were brutal, but the climbing was awesome! The first day, we broke into 6a (5.10a) trad by climbing “Armonica” to the top of Aguja Campanile. Then, we upped the ante by climbing “Las Bolas,” 6a+ the next day. Despite a little stuck rope experience, the climbing was awesome, we had wine with dinner, and polished off the night with a round of Euchre. On our fourth and last day of climbing, we cragged with our friends, trying hard on short single pitch crack climbs.

Richard picked us up at the trailhead on our last morning and took an excellent group photo, and we headed back to Star Gate. After a couple more days in paradise, we said our goodbyes and headed off toward Aconcagua. We rented a car at the Mendoza airport and set off on another road trip!

On our way to the park, we stopped in Uspallata. A desert canyon reminiscent of Jawbone canyon near Mojave led us to very colorful mini mountains! Can you spot the seven colors?

The highway to Aconcagua winds through a huge canyon, with artifacts of another age: old roads with collapsed bridges, caved in tunnels, and buried railroad tracks. We took the short day-hike option in the park, enjoying a picnic with a magnificent view. After a short cairn-building session we went back the way we came.

The next day we returned to Mendoza along highway 52, a scenic mountain/desert highway with magnificent views. We saw many guanacos (llama cousins) hanging out on the steep hills as we wound along the gravel switchbacks. Once back in Mendoza, we splurged on a nice wine tasting ahead of our return flight to Buenos Aires.

We’re going to miss hanging out in the Andes, but we know we’ll be back. There is simply too much to explore here to not come back! So for now, we bid them farewell.