today we hiked around the park a bit. like yesterday, it was very windy (15mph winds on the street…..20-30 on the mountain)…but today, it was also snowing, making it cold/painful with very low visibility. after braving the blizzard for a few hours, we decided to take a shortcut to the coast, over a 300km dirt road. i should have learned my lesson from the costly shortcut i took to huaraz, but i’m a slow learner. after about 5 miles and a broken exhaust pipe, i made the decision to head back and take the paved road. luckily, it’s only the exhaust pipe that’s broken. and my spirit…a bit.

we’re now in rio gallegos….a windy little city, with garbage on many corners (it’s hard to contain with so much wind). patagonia is by far the most consistently windy place i’ve ever been. on account of the strong winds, good/straight roads (easy to drive fast) and poor door insulation, the sentra can be very noisy….almost as bad a small turbo prop plane. so, a couple days ago, i bought some ear plugs. what a difference! the drive is so much more pleasant…maybe even peaceful?

sorry, no pics today. the park was overcast. then we drove a bunch. then we got into rio gallegos at night. but here’s an image i saw, which i didn’t capture….but you can imagine it. there was a cow with it’s head through the barbed wire fence eating little patches of grass….when there were fields of good grass behind it….i guess the grass is greener on the other side.