Archive for April 2007
What´s this then?
April 15, 2007A picture says a thousand words..
April 15, 2007So here´s the last few weeks in pictures.
12,000 word essay to follow..
Gaucho works his hill of sheep, between Tierre del Fuego and Patagonia:
Click below for more.. (more…)
To the end and back – following the rise of the Andes
April 15, 2007The next few posts will be documenting from Tierra del Fuego up through Patagonia, along the Andes, and along Ruta 40.
Much like the jaw aching 12″ ham and cheese baguette I gave up all hope finishing, Patagonia seems endless at times.
It is very palatable and there is much more to come – for many days even – but it is exhausting and can get a little samey. That´s more about the sandwich than Patagonia but holds some truth for both.
Never ending stretches of patchy scrub-land and infinite rubble roads with equally epic stretched skies. Windswept, dusty and for the most part uninhabited and uninhabitable.
This is happily and sporadically interrupted: the majestic mountains of the Andes rising in the West – the occasional roadside guanaco (llama), family of wild horses, roadrunner, flamingos or armadillo – a glimmering, milky lake here and there – quirky isolated outposts, miles from anywhere.
There are also partially paved sections, providing peace and rest for the senses after the bone shaking, nose tickling, noisy rumbling majority. In some ways it is reminiscent of a cheap massage chair – although pleasant enough in small doses, the novelty wears off after a while.
A young child writing with his wrong hand would be justified in mocking the illegible scrawl attempted in my journal on much of this journey!
Originally, the plan had been to fly in and out of Ushuaia, to get a glimpse of the tip of South America. Then the plan changed in order to get a richer experience of Patagonia and more of a feel for the full extent of this section of the enormous continent.
The next part will begin in Ushuaia.
But first…
One night in Santiago – en route to Tierre del Fuego
April 4, 2007From Buenos Aires, my next major destination was to be Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world.
Due to certain constraints imposed on my round the world ticket, rather than flying direct, the route involved going via Santiago, the capital of Chile.
This was a one night stopover – the plane landed at 6pm and I was due to fly out the next day at 8am.
Leaving the airport, I made my first real rookie mistake.
A brief visit to Buenos Aires
April 3, 2007It is approximately 20 hours by bus from Puerto Iguassu to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
This journey was to take longer, getting off to a slow start by leaving 45 minutes late.
6 or 7 hours into the journey, I had just dozed off when I was abruptly snapped back to reality by a man standing over me, shouting at me in Spanish. It sounded urgent and obviously important but having just risen from slumber, it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on.
A robbery?
A bomb?
War has just broken out?
MondayMorningMutiny.com 