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Heading west from El Calafate, Ruta 11 rises onto la Meseta de las Vizcachas, elevated plateau of the estepa, an arid plain that chases the sky to the Atlantic, spread with dry grasses that feed herds of wild guanacos…, | |
…sheep…, | |
…and Pterocnemia pennata, Choique in Castellano, Lesser Rhea in gringo. | |
After several hours of dirt track atop the meseta, we aimed the Hilux south at the one-building town of Cerrito and bounced through several rough undulating river valleys, arrived to the crossroads, a lonely gas station one hour from… | |
…the Chilean border, and another dose of Patogonia's humbling skies. "Luckily the clouds were interesting with bizarre shapes because the landscape was a vast sea of nothing. Mile after mile, as far as the eye can see there was only the slightly rolling hills of the steppe. It seemed that we could see the curvature of the Earth in all directions. I felt extremely lucky that we had not blown a tire and thought for sure that of all the rocky dirt roads that we traveled, this would be the one. But the Hilux held strong, even the front left tire that looked completely bald. The nothingness was dotted with a town that consisted of an extremely small gas station and one additional building at the crossroads of the only two roads for miles." | |
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