Back on Ruta 40 about 90 minutes later, and surprisingly hit an isolated section of finished, painted, signed, paved road for about 40 miles; and then back to ripio until the next pueblo many miles later. We didn’t see another car all morning --we could have driven backwards at 60 mph in the oncoming lane on the entire paved section if we wanted (we only did this for five miles and then got bored). I … uh … noted that I missed the ripio a little while driving on the pavement, realizing that I am much more connected to the earth going 30 mph or less and feeling every contour of her shape.
We got to the pueblo of Gobernador Gregores around noon hoping to fuel up and get a few supplies, but we arrived at the wrong time, everything was closed for siesta and the gas station had no power (therefore no pump/no fuel). We decided not wait until the stores re-opened at 4 PM and the power hopefully restored; and gambled that we could make it to the next pueblo 4 hours away -- Tres Lagos – on a half of a tank (and we have a spare five gallons in a can).
We made it no problem to Tres Lagos but all afternoon we traveled across the most bizarre landscape: volcanic, mostly barren of vegetation, canyons and mesas not much impacted by erosion – it was alien, unfamiliar, surreal. We could have been one of those rovers on Mars. All ripio of course, and the winds were phenomenal again today … we sailed back and forth across the very wide Ruta 40, and I’m pretty sure we flew the upwind wheels on the truck a couple of times.
We fueled up no problem in Tres Lagos and hit pavement, perhaps permanently. Now camped alongside the road about 30 miles from El Chalten, and it’s raining and the temperature is dropping drastically – it will be a cold night.
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