Today is Sunday – the 8th of January and I’m in Mendoza, the city located on the eastern side of the Andes. It is is a popular gateway point for expeditions to Aconcagua.
Mendoza is famous for its world-class wine, especially for Malbec which is the flagship grape of the region and my favourite red wine 
another thing mouth-watering Argentina’s steaks, unfortunately with my broken arm it is difficult to enjoy the full experience as I have to ask to cut the meat for me like for a baby 
From here we (by we I mean Raul from Mexico who is my friend and he is leading this expedition and Ricardo from Costa Rica – Raul’s friend)
.. so tomorrow we are traveling to Puente del Inca, and later to the Horcones checkpoint located at 2,950 m altitude.
The Park Rangers will check our individual park entrance and ascent permits, as without them we can’t enter the park. Most of our equipment will be transported to the base camp by mules, and to higher camps we will have to carry it ourselves during numerous acclimatisation hikes.
From here we will drive to the entrance of the Park, where the whole fun is going to start and our trek to Confluencia Camp (3390 m).
After a couple of days in the Confluencia Camp we will trek to the Plaza de Mulas (4260 m); where we will be based for around 10-12 days, completing many acclimatisation treks and transporting our equipment to higher camps. And of course we will have some rest days. I hope!!
It’s gonna be my first such a long expedition and for the first time I will be spending so many days in one go on the mountain. I think the longest mountain adventure similar to this was my trip to Tanzania in 2018 where I climbed Kilimanjaro- my first one of the highest 7 but this trek was only 8 days long, not 18.
I’m sure I will have a better and worse days but the most important thing to remember is that the bad moment will always pass like everything else.
The moment that I actually realised that this trip is happening was the moment of leaving the house ‘I felt almost breathless for a moment, my heart was pumping, tears came to my eyes. This was the moment when I thought ‘Fuck, this is real. This is happening’ 
Even though I was preparing for it for months. My equipment was laying around, clothes were nicely stashed on the top of cupboard, medications, personal items, snacks and sweets … but I think I almost ignored it as it was still far away.
It always feels that you could do more, prepare better, fear of not being strong enough shows up, my broken arm is not making it easy also but there is also something else – the fear of failure. 
And Yes! Of course I’m scared and nervous but also very excited about this adventure!
So let’s live the experience and do not worry about tomorrow’ 
I read this today online and I really liked it so I would like to share it with all of you 🙂
… ‘what matters is not the summit, but walking towards it step by step, without being exposed to danger because preserving our heart healthy is what makes sense to the adventure. And if we reach the summit, it is really amazing. Then, for it to be worthy, the important thing is to start again, step by step, from hill to hill, from year to year, because the mountains, like life, are infinite and generous and they deserve to be shared among friends’ …
The Aconcagua Expeditions Website (2023)
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