Currently in Mendoza city ( (googlemaps), Mendoza

Yesterday we took the Alta Montaña tour. That took us up to 4000m and the border with Chile. The mountains were, as expected, absolutely astounding. They dwarf the alps (in a museum later we learned about San Martín, the liberator of Argentina in 1816, crossed the Andes with his army... the highest pass they crossed was 5000m... the museum compared that with the Napoleonic crossing of the Alps, a paltry 3000m). At the border with Chile, after going up a 20 hairpin dirt track where the corners have names like "El Inodoro" (the toilet), you find a massive bronze statue of Christ, one foot in Argentina, one in Chile. He was dragged up there by mule as a symbol of peace between the two countries.

The tour was a laugh, everyone but us was Argentinian so it was great practice. On the way back we stopped at The Lost World, a home made museum which was basically a house covered with a massive painted tarpaulin to make it look like a tortoise shell. We went in and the guide/owner explained it was a time machine (it´s really for kids). We went through different rooms (six or seven) which had been made into dioramas remeniscent of American science fair stuff, starting off with San Martín in the Andes and going back to the formation of the mountains. The guy was very enthusiastc, reminded me of Johnny Ball. As we left one of the guys on the tour with us was helpless with laughter and asked us not to mention this museum to anyone. He said "god help us but this is our disneyworld".
  ¶ 3:29 PM