A precarious mountain drive

We had a drive up the precarious road leading to the Cristo Redentor when we were staying in Penitentes, in the shadow of Aconcagua. 

The start point for this 9km drive, during which you ascend 1km, is not far from the Argentinian border, at a small village called Las Cuevas.  It is famous for being the first village you come to over when you arrive from the Los Libertadores border crossing (one of about 15) from Chile to Argentina and infamous for a massive landslide that wiped out much of the original village there several decades ago.  

From the village you progress quite steeply up a small, unmade and unprotected road (preferably in a 4 x 4) to the summit where there is a beautiful statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), not to be confused with the statue of the same name that watches over Rio de Janeiro. The statue, made of bronze, was built in 1904, to celebrate the successful resolution of a border dispute between Chile and Argentina, and indeed sits astride the border between those two countries. 

"High mountain road - take extreme care"

Let's hope no-one comes around the corner....

Well, we didn’t have a 4 x 4 but our little Chevvy had already coped with some serious off-road challenges on Ruta 40 so we figured we’d give it a go. The road had about 16 switch backs - apparently the old road only had 3, so we could barely imagine how steep they must have been!  

At the top, the wind was unbelievable, you didn’t go anywhere near the edge, because you felt that you might get lifted up at any moment.  We were staying very close to the boys!

Fighting the wind - well you don't think
our hair ALWAYS looks like that do you?

The roads in places were extremely narrow, and driving on the right, at least you hugged the “safe” side on the way up.  When you were descending though, you definitely didn’t feel like getting too close to the edge in case the road fell away beneath you - it didn’t look reinforced in any way - and let’s just say the drops didn’t look very forgiving if you DID go over! 

Thankfully, we managed to stay on course.