Las Lagas

A nice brisk morning at 9000 ft apparently. It was in the 60s F this morning. I didn't fill up gas, wanting to keep our weight low and I dumped water and didn't fill up. We headed up and the roads kept going higher and lower and higher, reaching almost 10000ft. I stopped twice to keep the engine from heating up. The alarm never went off again because I knew to keep it below 246F. But when we drove we crawled slowly. 

Eventually we made it to Las Lagas cable station. We were going to cross the border but it was such a slow going on this road we decided to stay put. The parking lot was free on the weekdays and there was a motorcyclist and another RV travelling. We cable car allows people to park up above a gorge and take a cable car down to a church built in the gorge. The story goes that a mother and a deaf mute child were in a storm and saught shelter in a cave formed by slabs of rock and the girl saw the virgin Mary on the cave wall and cried out and could speak and hear. Later a blind man came and regained vision and had a vision of a church and so it was built. This is apparently the fourth iteration. 

The cable car ride was $3.50 each way per adult and slightly cheaper for kids. 

It wasn't too crowded at the church. It is very pretty and the location is nice. The weather was cool at this elevation and the kids quickly became out of breath trying to run around. 

We spent the rest of the day at the cable car station parking lot. There was a nice kids playground and the kids played with other kids that showed up. I filled up some water and dumped the cassette and did some research. It was in the 50s F. We had some leftovers for dinner and pasta and guacamole. The Facebook groups have been giving me some advice on driving techniques to manage the Andes.