next, i continued the drive down towards ushuaia. i decided to take a detour to colonia sarmiento to see their petrified forest. so far, it’s been a bit of a waste. it’s about a 90minute drive to the place and once i got here, it was closed. the small town is a bit of a dump….but pretty expensive since it caters to the oil crowd. so, i’m camping out….since the cheapest hotel is twice that of trelew. it’s only $25…but more about the principal.

the drive was kinda cool, though. it passed through oil fields and some more scenic parts of patagonia. most of the area here seems flat and covered with small green bushes. however, hidden in this apparent plain are tons of small valleys and channels. as you get closer to the sea, these small channels begin to take over and the terrain switches to a lot of hills. pretty neat it’s also really windy here…seems like a great place for wind power (kite, prop, etc.) because of the wind, open space and infrastructure built-up by the oil fields. tomorrow i’ll check out the petrified forest and find out if the 1-day detour was worth it.