Yup, that’s where we are now. So excuse us all the misspellings, but the bus shakes us up and down on this legendary dirt road. We feel like shaken jellies and at the same time, like followers and explorers of the famous Che Gevaras traces.
What is routa 40?
It is THE road that you just cannot skip if you want to see the heart of Patagonia, almost untouched by the human civilization. If you travel southwards, Patagonia appears as vast flatlands limited by the high range of white snowy Andes at your right.
We’ve been on the road for 2 days now. We’ve turned a bit to the left some 2h ago. Since then we carry on straight ahead… There is hardly any vehicle passing.
So far we managed to get the front seats on the bus, which means that unlike the gringos in the back of the bus, we can see through the dust and observe the fauna. Yesterday, for instance, we were still passing through some up-to-the knee height bushes that were the home for hundreds of ostriches. When these animals spot our bus, they run away like crazy. I’m disappointed, as I always thought they would hide their head in the ground, rather then run. Apparently they do not watch the same cartoons as we do. A few times we saw the whole family – the mama ostrich plus a dozen of youngsters trying to catch up with the running mother. Moreover there are plenty of gunacos, which is a Patagonian type of lama. There are also many sheep – somewhat forgotten by the shepherds, as they seem not to be shaved for ages. With the puffy white clouds in the background floating low above the steppe, the sheep make a beautiful image. There is also one or two buses per day on the line Perito Moreno – El Chalten.
We are going to post this entry as soon as we grab a bit of the Internet in this deserted region.
Blog entry location:See entire map here!