Day 33 - 07 Jan.2012 - Comodoro Rivadavia

There are a few homeless dogs on the campsite, which seem to live on and as well as off the campsite. One of them must have chosen to adopt us its owners and was following us wherever we went on the campsite. At night it was staying some meters in front of the tent and lying in the dust. In the morning it was gone, but on our way to the washrooms it must have spotted us and here we go, it followed us again wherever we went.
When we packed our stuff the dog disappeared, probably looking for another “owner”.
Today was a day on the road bringing us some 450 km further south.
We had lunch just outside a petrol station and prepared some sandwiches at the back of our car – with that Patagonian wind quite a task.
As we approached Comodoro Rivadavia, more and more oil pumps appeared. It seems that this region is rich in onshore oil, which apparently was discovered by chance when people were drilling in search for water and found oil instead.
We stopped in Rada Tilly, a beach town south of Comodoro Rivadavia, and put our tent up at the Camping Municipal. This campsite is run by the local council and is most likely subsidised, as the prices are incredibly low. We paid about 30 pesos including the car and we had even hot showers (although not really very reliable).
Once our tent was up we went to the beach to have a walk. It was literally heaving! Filled with families, kids, dogs, guys kicking the ball, girls playing beach hockey, people drinking mate, teenagers gathering along the beach boulevard wall listening to the music coming from their cars parked nearby, runners etc. It seemed as the whole town was there and it was definitely the most vibrant place in Comodoro Rivadiva.
As we saved on the “accommodation” we thought to indulge ourselves and went in search for a restaurant to have dinner. Well, this was almost mission impossible. It seems that the people here do not go out on their holiday breaks and the only place we found was a homemade burger bar near the beach. After the burgers we went back to our tent and crawled into our sleeping bags.