March to Aconcagua!

Aconcagua (6960m) is the highest peak in Western Hemisphere. It's located 5 hours of bus ride north to Mendoza. Today we take on a trekking tour to the mountain. There are 6 people (3 couples including Martin and me (if we can be called "couple")). One couple are from Sweden, one couple are from Holland. We have a tour guide named Marios. The tour will take three days. On the first day, we take 5 hours bus ride to the park entrance, from there we are going to hike 4-5 hours to the first base camp called "Conflusia" and stayed over night there. On the second day, we will hike to second base camp " Plaza of Flansis" which is about 5 hours going and 4 hours coming back. and come back to "Conflusia". On the third day, we head back to Mendoza. Compared with the real climbing trip which usually takes 14-16 days, this is just a guided hiking trip.
We got to the park entrance in the early afternoon. It was hot and sunny. We were standing outside of the park station, waiting for the permit. I saw a number of goups coming back down from the trails. Some groups are hanging out around the station. People are from all over the world, speaking different languages, talking about their mountain experience. Mules are absolutely part of the group. They are carrying climbers' and trekers' food and gear. Helicopter is swirling in the sky ready for another medical emergency mission. The scene reminds me of some action movie sets where some rescue mission is undergoing at some terrorist military base. Sometimes you just need a bit imagination!
The next 4 hours hike was not bad at all. It was a pretty easy trail. The biggest obstacle is wind and sun. We passed a bridge where one of the movie" Tibet Sever Years" scenes was filmed. It was about 6:00pm when we arrived at Conflusia where all the climbers and trekers camped as first stop before heading toward mountain. There were quite a few tents on the camp ground and people were hanging around. Most of climbers have their own tents and tourists like us stay at a big dorm tent.
At dinner, our chef cooked us curry chicken and rice and even desert! We were sitting around the dinner table in coat and scarf ( it was getting freezing at night!) chewing the wierd looking curry chicken, some people cooking out on their own stoves, talking something I have no clue what's about. It's all happening at the little camp group surrounded by numerous huge snow mountains with two trails heading to the summit. Outside the tent, there were millions of stars gazing in the dark dark sky. Staring at the sky, I was thinking how many people on this planet can be so blessed to have such a spectacular life experience like this.