The 40 Day One

We stocked up with enough food and water for a nuclear war, not having any idea of how long we would be stuck in the desert. Our thumbs were oustretched by 9 am. I read half of my book that day. At 5 pm we were listening to some French guys tell us how impossible it was to hitch on the 40 when, to their dismay, a car pulled over and we headed out of town. We were elated. Our driver said he would take us 90 kilometers to the first intersection. We even picked up two other kids from Buenos Aires on the way who had got fed up waiting and left El Chaltén on foot. Stuffed in the back of the van we compared road stories before splitting, them going South with the driver. We didn´t even get the chance to put our bags down when a small tour bus who had seen us in town stopped and took us the remaining 30 kilometers to the beginning of the dusty Route 40.

Hours passed. We read, juggled rocks, made up stupid games, and napped. Three cars drove by, one every hour. Finally, a bus stopped. Not to pick us up, no, it was dropping off three more Argentine hitchhikers. Two guys and a girl. Competition was not something we needed with such scarce traffic.

There was a small town a couple of kilometers away and, it already being late evening, the Argentines were going to walk in to get some wine for the night. Haukur, already resigned to the fact that we were gonna sleep on the side of the road, gave them 10 pesos so they could buy wine for us as well.

We never got the wine. As soon as our new companions were out of view a pickup stopped in front of us. They were going to Gobernador Gregores, 150 kilometers away, and we could sit in the back if we wanted.













We watched the sun go down over the Patagonian steppe from the truck bed. After it was gone the wind froze us to the bone and we huddled together to keep warm.

We hopped out in Gobernador Gregores around midnight. I thought my legs would never warm up. It took a jog down the block and back to get my teeth to stop chattering. But we made it, almost 300 kilometers in one day. We found the municipal campground was free and fell asleep as soon as the tents were up.