One Apple A Day #167
From Esquel to Perito Moreno, January 6th, 2017
We leave Esquel after an excellent recovering night and abundant breakfast.
Today is a transfer trip. We plan to cover the almost 600 kilometres to Perito Moreno, the town. From there we have a few plans but Today is just about going South and getting comfortable with the long distances of Patagonia. Here spaces are much wider than everything we experienced in our life. We thought it was a good idea to plan a first easy and dreary day to spend in our truck. Because we live so far one from the other, we didn’t have many opportunities to speak lately. One day with nothing else to do than driving and talking should be enough to catch up.
“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” — Helmuth von Moltke, the Elder
In this case, the disruptive impact is not with an enemy but with a friend; the Ruta40.
The scenario around us steals all our attention. We don’t have the time to talk. We are just in awe of the space that surrounds us.
Then suddenly the asphalt ends, and the real fun begins. More than 300 kilometres of a white road where we can play with Crichetta.
Midway we cross something that resembles a village, but it’s more a resting place for truck drivers. A few houses, a small restaurant and a gas station. Not much but it’s what we need. We eat a tasty polenta with chilli, we drink a beer, and we fill Crichetta’s tank.
The rest of the day is just a long sequence of gravel, dust, holes, pampa, flatland, mountains at the horizons, deep blue sky, horses, an armadillo, guanacos, condors and the wind of Patagonia.
This is freedom. Every now and when we have to stop along the road only to sit down in silence and breath all this wonder.
We are divers swimming to the surface of life. We must compensate while we move from the high pressure of our lives to the fresh and open air of this infinity.
Today we are redefining our idea of space.