well it has certainly been some time since the last post! I had a little incident with a cup of peppermint tea and our mac and the computer came off second best. that plus having too much of an enjoyable time has meant no work on the blog! nevertheless let’s get on with it.

argentina. It has been a while since we were there but it has left permanent, wonderful marks on our memories. After we went as far south as time would permit (Rio Gallegos), we made a left turn onto the Ruta 3 and headed north with our backs to the mountains and our sights set on the big smoke. If you have ever looked at a road map of Argentina you will see it’s a pretty big place. Really big actually. And when you are driving a four-cylinder oversized white brick across wide open plains getting buffeted off the road when trucks and buses pass, making about 500kms to the tank, travelling takes a little more time than google maps estimates. Luckily for us it meant we were able to detour into small towns that have little exposure to the outside world let alone tourists.

we were just outside a town called Comodoro Rivadavia having just struck the South Atlantic when Señor Vánchez changed his tune from his usual quiet, humming self to a loud, obnoxious, home-modified WRX noise. Snapped exhaust pipe, it turned out Patagonia had taken its toll. We discussed staying in this town for the night and seeking out a mechanic in the morning, but decided against this and kept driving to a town I had read was charming and tiny and hoped he would make it the distance. The smaller, charming town turned out to be a fair drive (three more hours up the highway, then about an hour east to the coast on a remote road) but he made it and we found a place to stay the night. Camarones is charming, tiny, has about 1300 inhabitants, two restaurants, two places to stay, two mechanics, lots of gorgeous old pickups and a whole lot of friendly people.

      

the “sand” at the beach

matt and the mechanic who welded our exhaust pipe for a hefty fee of 50 pesos ($7).

camarones coastline, so much potential, so little swell. such a remote, beautiful place

after 3 nights in a cabaña in this cosy little town and visiting a remote penguin colony we continued our journey north and I was quite sad to say goodbye. Full steam ahead to Buenos Aires with overnight stops in Viedma, an attempted overnight stop in Necocheo (but the town was fully booked, the best offer available was to pay $50 to sleep in our car and use the camping grounds showers – rip off!) so made it to Balcarce instead (home of Fangio). Next stop Las Flores eating some meat off a roadside grill with questionable hygiene practices (but was still delicious despite the flies – they brushed them off the food for us) and found an amazing derelict cemetery to wander for an hour or so.

Las Flores was beautiful, full of old and historic buildings with beautiful leafy trees reminiscent of Newtown but in dire need of TLC and some hipsters to sell good coffee. Such potential but yet so far from anything I imagine if we were to visit this place in 20 years not much will have changed. But maybe that’s what makes it so charming.

from Las Flores we made it to Buenos Aires which deserves its own little post

b + m