After checking out Mina La Casulidad, we still had about 20 or 30 miles on rough dirt road to Mina Julia. We drove through so many different, beautiful landscapes and it felt like we’re on a complete different planet. The road to the mine was carved into the side of the mountain and it was absolutely stunning. As we inched higher and higher, we finally reached our destination, which sits at 17,364 feet above sea level! That’s the highest either of us have ever been!

After we got to the mine, we noticed there was snow on the ground, that was a bit shocking. We also surprisingly saw a van there and ended up meeting a Swiss couple that knew the other travelers we met earlier that day. They’re around our age and planning to sleep up at the mine. We thought they were crazy since it would get so cold and windy up there! After chatting with them, we turned around and started to head back towards civilization knowing that we had a long journey to get back to town.

The journey home was quite treacherous with so much washboard and it ended up getting dark so we had to drive in the dark for a while, which is never fun. The wind was howling and was ice cold, aka miserable. At one point, we had to refill out gas tank with gas; it was very challenging since the wind would blow the gas everywhere when we would pour it in. Another fun addition to the dark and challenging ride was our balsamic vinegar in our food bag exploded so we have balsamic vinegar covering all of our backpacks too, haha -

Thankfully, we eventually made it safely to the town and Lord-willing found a guesthouse for a great price for the night. They even had a restaurant around the corner for a late dinner around 10:00 PM. We slept so hard that night and are still in awe of what a wild, remote, and exhilarating adventure the entire day was.

Approaching the mine:

Main mountain for mining, you can barely make out some old buildings on the left hand side of the photo and also the roads up the mountain:

Altitude 17,348 feet, phew!

Domino and the mine :)