after fixing the flat in the rain yesterday, i was glad to leave viedma/carmen de patagones this morning. so, we hopped in the car and drove….without even bothering to look for a gas station. so, about 40 minutes into the drive, we had to stop and fill up the tank with one of the jerry cans. it was fine/easy, but a bit of a pain because of the wind/sand (note: every month i replace the fuel in the cans, because i’ve heard that the gasoline begins to deteriorate after that).

we then arrived in bahia blanca, which is a small city near the coast. the city seems kinda cool, and may have a small/hip art community — i didn’t see it directly, but there was some cool street art and a nice (but small) art museum. later, we went to see a guitar concert. it was cool, but a lot slower than i would have expected (…i was hoping for super fast playing, like rodrigo y gabriela).

we also cooked dinner tonight, stopping by a small cooperative market on the way to the hostel. the produce lady was very very friendly. she even wrote us small lists of things to see/do in mar del plata and buenos aires. when we asked for recommendations for bahia blanca, she couldn’t come up with anything!

two other things: 1) ice cream is insanely cheap, and quite good. the cheapest option at the parlor was 80 cents (for two scoops and a cone). a 3 scoop option with waffle cone was $1.25; and 2) there’s something unique about the public trash cans here. see if you can figure it out (answer when you mouseover the picture).

this morning i splurged and bought a new tire….for $60. tires are very expensive here (that was the cheapest one available). i got rid of one really bad tire and was going to repair the other tire….but the guy at bridgestone just gave me an old tire instead (which was in better shape than the one he was going to repair). so, now i was driving with 1 new tire, 2 newish tires (from santiago, about 1 month old) and 1 older tire. while shopping for tires, i also came across a discarded shopping list — on the top of the list? yerba, of course (used to make mate, which is drunk a ton….for instance, the tire repair guy stopped to drink it 3 times in the 10 minutes he was fixing the tires).

then, we drove up north to viedma and carmen de patagonia. there’s a river that separates the two….which feels very similar to the charles (in boston/cambridge). both places are pretty dead. when we showed up at 5pm, we went to the tourist office. ironically, according to their brochure, the only tourist thing open was the tourist office itself. that gives you an idea of the place we’re at. so, as in boston, we decided to do a bridge loop.

later, while driving around looking for lodging/food something crazy happened…i got ANOTHER flat tire. that makes 5 in about a week. this time it struck the front driver’s side wheel (with a newish, cheap tire from santiago). it’s probably a sign that i should head home….except my friend is showing up later this week…so we’ll have to keep on going. maybe when i reach brazil i can buy some new (cheap) ones.

today i saw my first wild armadillo, as it was crossing the highway. i also saw (and hit) my first tumbleweed. those were the good ‘firsts’. then, as we were driving to peninsula valdez, i got another flat….but this time, i fishtailed (twice) for the first time. because i was going fast (70ish mph) and passing a truck on a windy stretch of patagonia, i thought it was just my mistake. it wasn’t that bad….just a little bit of wobbling of the car….but i maintained control and stayed in my lane (…well, i guess the opposite lane, since i was passing). but then, a minute or two later, i decided to stop and check….and sure enough, the tire had gone bad (pic).

peninsula valdez was a bit disappointing after the incredible nearby punta tombo (with millions of penguins). the peninsula has elephant seals, penguins and supposedly a bunch of other creatures we didnt see (whales, dolphins, orcas, etc.). on the way back, we got yet another flat — this time a nail had gone through the tire while driving on the dirt detour.

i think the car might be starting to get old….or at least certain parts. in the last week, i’ve needed new brake pads and have gotten 4 flats (all on the rear driver’s side position….not sure if there’s something wrong with that spot….or if it’s that i keep replacing flat tires with old/worn tires).

anyway, puerto madryn is nice. small, but ok. things also seem to be getting a bit cheaper the further north we go.

another long day of driving…this time over 1200km from rio gallegos to trelew. there’s nothing very interesting to see on the way….so we figured it might be better to get the driving out of the way. this morning i started off by getting the exhaust pipe welded back together again (~$12). the guys did a good job, but raised the pipe so its touching the sentra body: good for clearance, but bad for vibrations (the pipe resonates around 45mph). then, we were off.

i felt a bit like a captain of a plane today, while driving the sentra up patagonia. the car is pretty noisy at high speeds, so i’d only talk to my passenger (gabriel, the swiss traveler) to point out interesting scenery or provide an update of our scheduled arrival time. At other times, he was free to nap, eat or watch one of our in-flight movies (free, if you provide your own earphones), courtesy of Roberto from Santiago. This month, on our journeys northbound from ushuaia (…i guess all trips would be northbound from the southernmost city on earth), we’re featuring bruno, you don’t mess with the zohan, blades of glory, good will hunting and king lines.

we finally made it to trelew around 11pm. tomorrow, i get to enjoy peninsula valdez.

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.

from perrito moreno, i drove up north to chalten, which has some nice hikes (supposedly….i’ll know more tomorrow).

i also noticed that my front right wheel was making some noise when i braked, so i decided to check out the pads…turns out that they were completely worn out on the front passenger-side (coincidentally, the same side that the car tends to drift towards). in fact, some of the metal was scraping against the outside of the disk….luckily it wasn’t so much as to damage the disk….although the disks are pretty wavy…not as bad as a record, but close. also, here’s something weird (i.e.–not good….but, i’m not dead either): the driver’s side brake pads were not nearly as worn out (still had ~1/4in remaining). it probably has something to do with the flux capacitor. luckily, i have some extra pads from when i prematurely changed my brakes back in guatemala.

lastly, i picked up another traveler…a swiss guy who had randomly been at the same hostel in ushuaia a few days earlier. i hadn’t noticed him in ushuaia (we hadn’t spoke), but he recognized the xo laptop. it’s crazy how good of an icebreaker the olpc is. it looks like he’ll hitch a ride to puerto madryn.

today i checked out the glacier nacional park. in the morning, we went to see perrito moreno — a huge glacier nestled in between some mountains and a lake. from the lake side, you can see (and hear) pieces of the glacier falling into the water — very cool. it’s beautiful to see all the colors and shapes formed by the ice.