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The end of the earth. That is what they call Ushuaia (pronounced Ushwaya). The only fully paved road in this region goes down the Atlantic side of the continent to a town called Rio Gallagos. That is a hop skip and a jump from Ushuaia which is as far south as you can go on land. We are very far south right now. Rio Gallagos is an oil town on the Atlantic side of the skinny tail on the bottom of south America. Not much to look at. We are now heading west towards the mountains on the pacific side. The bus has lost its mystique for us. All day yesterday on a bus that was 2.5 hours late to start with, all night on a bus, a transfer to another bus at Rio Gallagos this morning, now most of another day on the bus. We had expected to arrive this morning, and be done, but everything happens slowly here, and there was very little information about this area heading in. Everything I read conflicted, except for one constant- everything happens slowly, and you must be patient.... Not my strong suit!! Now we are sitting at a border of some sort- not sure if we are crossing a small part of Chile or if this is a national park, but they are checking everyone's passport. They did the same thing on the way into town. Very slow process.... It is exceedingly windy here!! It makes Lethbridge seen calm. Other than that the weather is pretty good. Mostly cloudy, but with some blue sky showing through. That is probably part of what is setting me on edge. Good weather here is uncommon, and we are sitting on a bus!!!! Groan. It is divided highway the whole way here, but I'm sure we never got over 80 Km/hr. I'm so glad that we are not bussing back up the whole continent!!! At the end of our stay here we will be flying to Salta Argentina. Which is just below Bolivia. Then a couple more bus trips before we are back in Cuzco Peru for our flight home. Sierra and I are anticipating that those last busses will likely be tough to take. They will be through Bolivia, which has by far the worst infrastructure of anywhere we have been, at a time when we are most tired of bus travel!!! This last bus transfer has put us back in tourist land. There is something kind of comforting about being with other travelers. They tend to help each other out when needed, and generally have a friendly smile for other travelers. The Argentine people have been very friendly with very rare exceptions, but sometimes you do feel a bit out of place. You can tell people are looking at you and wondering what you are doing there. They seem to be thinking, "Are you lost? Why aren't you in Bariloche with the other tourists??" hahaha! I guess we just aren't quite like the other tourists... Argentina is certainly a land of sweeping vistas!! Land and sky with few identifying characteristics. Occasional hills, and occasional sheep. No crops, except near Mendoza where there were vineyards and orchards, and a little corn. It is beautiful in its own way.
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