This glacier is one of the tourist highlights of argentina and is one of the world natural heritage sites managed by unesco. The glacier originates in the andes at an altitude of almost 3000 meters and extends to lake argenino, which is only 185 meters above sea level. What is amazing to me is that the glacier lies in the same geographical latitude as frankfurt, namely at 50 degrees south.
We just lefthe desert with a lot of stormy winds, dust and bad tracks. We reached the tarmac road towards esquel when I missed a thick nail, which was then catapulted into the rear tire. Before the tire had lost all air I was warned by a passing car. The side wind was so rough that I hadn’t even noticed the change in driving behavior.
A police patrol promised to send a tire repair service, sergio rushed to help and we loaded the defective wheel onto his pickup truck. A truck tire repair shop in esquel, 15 kilometers away, patched the defective tire and after three hours we were back on the road…
… and a few days later, again after a bad runway, the end of the tire’s life had come.
Since 2003, geologist and paleontologist dr. jorge calvo has been digging and researching at this location. Several of his finds as well as some replicas of dinosaurs are exhibited in his mostly privately financed museum. To all overlanders: the lake nearby is a perfect place to stay overnight.
we left the atlantic coast and drove towards the andes to the city of neuquen. Nearby is the valle de la luna rojo, (red moon valley) a great place to watch the sunset and rise. And of course the stars at night…
