CANADIAN TRANSNATIONAL MINING COMPANIES SEIZE JACHAL, ARGENTINA.

On arrival to Jachal, our local contact, Pedro Robledos, quickly gave us a tour of the place. Not the kind of tours where you tick off monuments and sights, but a revolutionary one. He was involved in all local issues in the way you would advice anybody to be, and exlpained us the whole conflict with Barrick Mining Company, among the different foreign companies that have established mines to extract gold. In exchange for a few jobs, the mines polute the rivers which are vital for agriculture in the region. And of course they have teamed up sociologists and pasicologists to convince the population they the commit a sustainable and harmless activity...

But you can see what people actually thinks...

A painting exhibition in town. If you get close you can see the hopeless faces of this family.

Steven discussing different issues with the artist.

Pedro and his friends, from jachal, San Juan Province, Argentina. He was a great host!

A RIDE IN A "LIEBHERR" CRANE...

After a couple of hours waiting, we managed to stop thi fabolous vehicle. It was my first ride in such big machines... The driver had been driving similar cranes in remote locations as Turkmenistan... Average speed: 40 km/h

Our driver prepearing some mates.

SQUATTING AN ABBANDONED RAILWAY STATION IN TALACASTO, SAN JUAN

We arrived to this lonely crossroad on Road 40... and hitched for two hours with non results...so just decided to stay overnight in the old station.

Road 40. San Juan, Argentina.

Our tent, inside the station.

TESTING UNSPECIFIC HITCH-HIKING SIGNS

We were in Uspallata, Mendoza, and decided to head northwards to Barreal in San Juan province by taking Road 149, unpaved, and seldom used. We created a sign thast said: "Travelling Argentina" with thumb sign. And had to wait only 1:30 hours to get a ride in a doble cab Toyota Hi Lux all the way to Calingasta.

Army cavalry has headquarters somewhere near Uspallata...

High altitud nimbus on the road...

HOMELESSNESS ON SNOW...

Basically, our HC host in Mendoza was friend to an ski instructor in Penitentes ski center. There we went, of course, by hitch hiking. It was not easy, and we needed six hours to stop a car. We can understand that... just imagine all the aristocracy from Buenos Aires parading their fully loaded station wagons....

This was the place... Of course, we didn´t stay in a 100 dollars a day hotel. But rather found an abbandoned hotel, whcih we conveniently squatted...

Playing cards with instructors....

The ski center in Los Penitentes, Mendoza, Argentina.

HITCH-HIKING USPALLATA...

Sunrise is a good time for duplicate yourself while hitch-hiking.

Great landscape in Mendoza province....

HITCH-HIKING MENDOZA, ARGENTINA: THE PARTY CAR...

On August, 2008 Steven, a Dutch road mate made a one month tour of Mendoza and San Juan Provinces in Argentina, my own country. We had been partying the whole night and we had somehow managed to hit the road at 2 p.m. Our attempts to recover sanity were frustrated by a 404 Peugeot that arrived zigzagging... Four guys inside were drinking tetrabrik wine, smoking joints and listening to old school rock and roll....and we couldn´t refuse the ride...

Inside the 404...

A shor stop in the caravan...