after 40-50 days of rain / snow, yesterday and the day before it was clear. layla and i hiked up cerro amigo. we saw a condor. that’s our word now, condor. super condor.
yesterday we walked out to the airstrip and looked back at the ridgeline where the condor flew.
cerro piltriquitron
layla kept looking at piltri and saying ‘mucha snow.’
it was clear but cold, maybe 40 degrees and windy. we all got cold after half an hour.
all the puddles that were in the shade were still frozen and layla got to break ice with her ‘stompers’. it was all super condor.
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all photos by laura bernhein.
Yesterday I went up to La Confluencia with Los Jordan. On the way there we stopped at 9 hectares to help unload some wood.
There were a bunch of paisanos there building a barn. They seemed stoked. I joked about them having plans for the structure, and one of them, Custodio, pulled a folded-up, scribbled sheet of paper out of his pocket. It had the overall structure size (9m x 6m), the roof height and angle, and placement of posts. That’s all they needed.
local paisano at 9 hectares
The mountain roads in Patagonia destroy pretty much every vehicle. The only one that seems to survive is known down here as the “Canadiense.” These were built in Canada (note steering wheel on right side) and were imported by Argentina after WWII. Most of them run on Chevy or Ford inline 6 motors with super low gearing. This truck was over 40 years old. The driver was stoked.
We unloaded a bunch of cottonwood boards for the roof and floors. It was a totally random crew. The paisanos, the Jordans, a WWOOFer volunteer, some women from Buenos Aires down there looking around to potentially buy land, and a woman visiting from South Africa [not everyone pictured here.]. I’m always stoked at how these random little groups form when you’re traveling.
On the way up to Warton, Shea got on his bike and grabbed on to the tailgate of Mark’s truck. I rode in the back and tried to take pics but was getting bounced around. Shea stopped at the top of the road leading down to La Confluencia. It’s like a gulley with these steep walls. Shea was a former pro downhill racer and he was getting huge wall-rides and airs on the way down. It would’ve made for a sick photo shoot. Afterwards he said it was “dumb shit to be doing without a helmet.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at kayaking videos and talking about stuff we could explore next season.