horses and emus and cows, oh my!

so here i am.

viedma, on the rio negra, the door to patagonia.

the train was not 14 hours as announced when i bought my ticket (i´m starting to get used to this) but insteadd about 20, as i left BsAs at 19h30 and got in here at 15h30.

on the train i met a couple of intrepid argentine travellers, including one who is going down ruta 3 to rio gallegos, now we´re sitting at the bus station sharing a maté and an egg sandwich waiting for a micro to take us to las grutas where we can pitch up our tents on the beach and tomorrow dip our feet in the water before continuing on south.
we were transported in an old rusty cattle truck from the train station at c. de patagones to viedma for a mere peso and a half, which i found ridiculous, and funny, and surreal all at the same time. ha.


my feet hanging out of the door, holding on to the metal bar, accordeon in hand playing melodies out to the patagonian steppe, wow. just. yeah.
it reminded me of la camargue, and it has a very garrigue like quality to it like in provence, but no lavender - instead, cows, sheep, horses and ostrich run around the treeless plains. salt flats here and there, a couple rivers, dunes, and a beautiful sky with huge, looming fluffy clouds.

and it´s only the beginning.

from here on it´s survive or die, but now i´ve got adrian the gaucho to accompany me down south, so all is good in the world of cat.