Mendoza Province

At one end of the Andes’ busiest highway crossing, Mendoza Province gets a steady stream of international visitors but also has a flourishing domestic travel industry.

Its biggest attraction, literally, is the formidable Andean range—symbolized by the hemisphere’s highest mountain, 6,962-meter Cerro Aconcagua [1]. Many visitors find the provincial capital of Mendoza [2] and its surrounding wine country so appealing that they stay longer than they expected.

Economically, tourism is a major contributor to the economy, but provincial oil and gas fields supply a quarter of Argentina’s fossil fuels. Augmented by hydroelectric power from Andean reservoirs, abundant energy resources have promoted industrial growth.