Driving to the Southern tip of South America

---

3 days of driving-Headed for Ushuaia, Argentina the southmernmost city on the continent.

At about noon, we passed a sign giving the distance left as 2859 km, or about 1787 miles. This will be a long 3 day drive, with two bush camps (tents, no showers, cooking our food).

The countryside is flat. Absolutely flat. There are no hills or mountains on the horizon. Lots of cattle on natural grassland, and it appears pretty dry. Not sure how much rain they get here, but it doesn’t look like much. Most farm houses/outbuildings are surrounded by a break of trees, and I bet it gets pretty windy. On the occasions we have stopped there has been a constant breeze, and it has been quite pleasant today, at about 70 degrees all day.

There are cars and trucks on the road but it is not crowded with vehicles. So far, the two lane roads from Buenos Aires have been very good, and we have been able to maintain a speed as high as 100-105 km/h, or about 60-65 mph. This is pretty good for the truck, didn’t know it would go that fast.

Not sure how long we will drive each day, but it is almost 6:00 pm now and the sun is still quite high so I expect that we will drive until at least 8 or 9 pm before we stop.

On these long days it is really boring on the truck so we play cards, chat with each other, read from the truck’s considerable numnber of books, and listen to rock music (I have my noise-canceling headphones). Every couple of hours we pull off the side of the road for a pee stop, and ocassionally we stop at a gas station to use their bathrooms and buy some snacks. Fortunately, Coca Cola, Lays potato chips, and ice cream have found their way around the world before us!! Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of chocolate other than Snickers bars, but I am making do.

Another thing I have noticed about Argentina is that lots of places sell coffee, and it is real, made with fresh ground beans. Brazil seemed to be infatuated with Nescafe and other disgusting instant coffees.

---

Photos

Windmills in So. Argentina
guess they have a lot of wind here

Bush Camping
not really "in the bush", these camps are usually at a gas station where there is a store and bathrooms. Upscale

sunset at Puerto Madryn
dinner at a beachside restaurant

Comments

[Maxine Diffee]

Hi Bill,
You are really in Nevada! All the South America visions are just that. A dream! Enjoying your travels. Max