Reaching the southernmost point of our itinerary meant crossing into Tierra del Fuego, the souther tip of the continent. The land is divided between Argentina and Chile, so in order to get to Ushuaia, Argentina's last city you need to enter Chilean territory and travel through for over 200 km. At Rio Gallegos we got a ride in this brand new Mercedes truck...
Landscape at the Chilean side with sheep ranches in the back. At least we were seeing grass as part of the landscape...
At the border, our truck driver missed one document, so he had to backtrack 65 km to Rio Gallegos to print it from the internet. We were left alone at the border, where we tried to find other drivers, with no success. After one hour and a half, Alejandro -the driver- was back and we jumped in the Mercedes again.
Old lighthouse at Magallanes Strait.
When we reached the last Chilean post it was already dark and customs were closed. Much to our astonishment, our truck driver went himself and convinced the Chilean policemen from the "Carabineros" station to let us stay for the night, so they showed us the way to a large unheated house they used as depot. There we managed to fabricate a bed out of couches.
Our palace for the night... Since the national census counted those poeple who had slept in Argentinian soil on the night of the 27th of october, we were not on the list. A funny way to escape statistics!
The last Mercedes truck and the eternal kettle with hot water for the mate. Traditions are alive in spite of technology...
2 comments:
what a nice system! :)
when i was in Syria everyone was drinking mate tea, it was fantastic.
I dont use sugar, but still i liked it very much.
I bought a couple of package and brought it back to istanbul.
But nobody knows what the mate tea in Turkey. all my friends didnt like it. But i really enjoy drinking this tasty tea. :)
Excelent! I was surprised too. Imagine to find mate in Syria!!
I also found people drinking mate in Ukraine... though few..
Good luck Umit!!
Juan
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