14-Oct-2003 -- From Azul, where we had spent the night, this morning we took the route Nr. 3 towards South. Shortly after leaving Azul we saw a roadsign. 2,859 km to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego! This gives a good impression of this huge country.

We drove until about 3 km North of the town of Adolfo Gonzales Chaves. According to our IGM (Insituto Geográfico Militar) map there seemed to be a nice shortcut towards West, which we tried. Our attempt, however, did terribly fail with an immediate stuckup in the mud. Our town car (Fiat Bravo) is not what one could call suitable for dirt roads. A few minutes later a curious driver of a Ford Four-wheeler pickup pulled up close to us and asked whether we had a problem. We certainly had and so he offered us a tow.

We were extremely suprised that Señor Omar Costamagna, so was his name, turned out to be a radio amateur (callsign LU4FRZ), as Werner is one (callsign OE9FWV). So they had a topic to talk about after the successful rescue operation. And that is not all: Omar lives at Rafaela in the Province of Cordoba, very close to 31S 62W. We plan to be there on Oct. 22nd and we agreed to meet again.

We then decided to take a longer but safer way. We took the route nr. 75 towards SE, and bent into a dry dirt road which led as to the confluence.

The confluence is about 200 metres off the dirt road in a grain field. As usual, when Captain Peter smells a confluence, he is rushing there with full power and nobody manages stop him.

The views in the various directions are similar. We attach the view towards North and East.

On the way back to the route 75 we passed "La Ceiba", the home of a friendly couple owing the land around. Among many other agricultural activities they are growing beautiful flowers.

After a friendly conversation we drove back to the route Nr. 3 and continued towards Punta Alta near Bahía Blanca, driving into the sunset.