We've been on the road now for two weeks, and covered 2,062 miles. We have a long way to go, and I hope it goes better than the last three days.
Although this picture above was taken today - and we'll get to that - let's back up a bit.
We have entered a hard driving phase, putting a lot of kilometers (miles, in metric) on the rig, and pushing north for three straight, long, and arduous days.
The first day was driving across the remote plains of western Argentina, encountering a town that apparently did not exist. (click here for that story:what town?)
And yesterday, we drove on one of the most dramatic stretches of road I have ever been on. It was downright dangerous and nerve racking, and ... alright, maybe I was scared a little bit. You would have been too.
It was quite an adventure, driving along the spectacular Lago Buenos Aires in the Patagonian Andes, inching along shear cliffs that plunge a thousand feet into the deep lake.
The views were unreal, but I couldn't look very often, I had to keep my eyes on the road. The margin of error was zero, or the results would be fatal. You know those little shrines that are put up on the road where there has been a fatal car accident? Well, there were a whole bunch of those little shrines on this road.
We were told it was something you don't want to miss, and so we went for it. I'm glad we did, and I'm glad we lived to tell about it.
Often you would come up to a blind turn and all you could see was the lake ... where does the road go? And there were almost no guard rails, just a single lane gravel road.
Eventually we got past this somewhat grueling drive and came to a remote town, and I couldn't help it, I had to take a picture of the lady leading a horse down the street.
And of course, the road went on, winding through single car bridges, like the one below:
And then you were greeted with another beautiful view.
--------------------------------------------
But we survived, and made our way further on, for a total of eight hours on dirt roads through the Andes to our destination - a town called Coyhaique (Koy-high-kay) in Chile. Really amazing scenery.
So today we thought we might have a mellow day, and had an easy morning with the understanding that the driving would be far less than the last couple days. But no ... that's not what happened.
We awoke to a steady hard rain. This place is really green, and you don't get green without a lot of rain. But we set out, and one thing we noticed was that rain brings ... waterfalls. Really big ones. Like the one at the top of this post, and this one.
And then we went up and down the big mountains here and the roads are most gravel and rock, and the sun finally came out and we - stopped. There was some kind of road stoppage ahead. We sat there for over an hour, high in the Andes.
And finally it opened up, and we soon discovered that the road had caved with all the rain. And they fixed it with rocks.
And eventually we overcame that, and reached our destination, La Junta, Chile. It turned out to be another eight hour driving day. I hope tomorrow is a little lighter ...
And I figured I would post a few more pictures, just for the heck of it. Tonight there is good internet, which is kinda rare on this trip.
And yesterday, we drove on one of the most dramatic stretches of road I have ever been on. It was downright dangerous and nerve racking, and ... alright, maybe I was scared a little bit. You would have been too.
It was quite an adventure, driving along the spectacular Lago Buenos Aires in the Patagonian Andes, inching along shear cliffs that plunge a thousand feet into the deep lake.
The views were unreal, but I couldn't look very often, I had to keep my eyes on the road. The margin of error was zero, or the results would be fatal. You know those little shrines that are put up on the road where there has been a fatal car accident? Well, there were a whole bunch of those little shrines on this road.
We were told it was something you don't want to miss, and so we went for it. I'm glad we did, and I'm glad we lived to tell about it.
Often you would come up to a blind turn and all you could see was the lake ... where does the road go? And there were almost no guard rails, just a single lane gravel road.
Eventually we got past this somewhat grueling drive and came to a remote town, and I couldn't help it, I had to take a picture of the lady leading a horse down the street.
And of course, the road went on, winding through single car bridges, like the one below:
And then you were greeted with another beautiful view.
--------------------------------------------
But we survived, and made our way further on, for a total of eight hours on dirt roads through the Andes to our destination - a town called Coyhaique (Koy-high-kay) in Chile. Really amazing scenery.
So today we thought we might have a mellow day, and had an easy morning with the understanding that the driving would be far less than the last couple days. But no ... that's not what happened.
We awoke to a steady hard rain. This place is really green, and you don't get green without a lot of rain. But we set out, and one thing we noticed was that rain brings ... waterfalls. Really big ones. Like the one at the top of this post, and this one.
And then we went up and down the big mountains here and the roads are most gravel and rock, and the sun finally came out and we - stopped. There was some kind of road stoppage ahead. We sat there for over an hour, high in the Andes.
And finally it opened up, and we soon discovered that the road had caved with all the rain. And they fixed it with rocks.
And eventually we overcame that, and reached our destination, La Junta, Chile. It turned out to be another eight hour driving day. I hope tomorrow is a little lighter ...
And I figured I would post a few more pictures, just for the heck of it. Tonight there is good internet, which is kinda rare on this trip.
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