Puenta de Inca is a natural bridge formed by sulphur springs. It is near the continental divide of the cordillera of Andes between Argentina and Chile and is about 9,000 feet. A narrow guage railroad used to come through there and a hotel was built in the windswept gap between two mountains with hot baths fed by the springs. The hotel was destroyed in the 1985 terremoto (earthquake) and there is a little church which miraculously survived. The mountains are green, pink and granite gray with strata pushed up at diagonal angles. We stayed in a very nice room in an old stone inn with mountain climbers from many countries - a group of 9 Portuguese men occupied bunks in nearby rooms. There was a guy from Bellingham. They were here to climb Cerrro Aconcagua - the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere - about 23,000 ft. One called it a "glorified walk". He said the difficulty was the altitude and the wind. They planned to spend 6 days acclimitizing.
On Christmas day, we stood out in the middle of the road waiting for El Rapido. We had purchased tickets in Mendoza for a bus "El Rapido" that would take us to Valparaiso. We could see any vehicles off in the distance and here came El Rapido. The big yellow bus zoomed by, followed by a CATA bus which stopped to let people off. The driver said there was a second El Rapido following. The second El Rapido zoomed by us, although we waved to it. We decided to hitch hike. However, a Upsalata bus came by and we flagged it down. It was empty and was planning to turn around and we explained our dilemma. The driver said he would take us on to the customs stop about a quarter mile down the road where the El Rapido busses would be stopped. We caught the second El Rapido bus there, but it wasn't our bus. He said he would drive us on to Chilean Immigration, where the first bus would be stopped. So on we went and finally caught our bus in immigration. The driver looked surprised that we managed to catch him, and I think he realized he had made a mistake - but he drove us out of the mountains to the coast of Chile and the port Valparaiso.