Day 34 - 08 Jan.2012 - Puerto San Julián

After updating some pages from our blog – we are constantly some days behind – we left the Camping Municipal to get back to Ruta 3 again. The road was following the coast for some kilometres offering some spectacular views over the bay. It was a nice change to the monotonous Patagonian steppe we drove through for the last couple of days. However, not for long and yet again we were battling through the barren and windy plains. Some eighty years ago a French pilot was braving these winds to deliver mail. His name was Antoine St-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince and it was this Patagonian landscape that inspired him to write the book. Knowing that it is now clear why on his imaginary planet there is only one Prince, one Rose, one Fox and one tree.
On our way we frequently spotted roadside shrines surrounded by red flags. We often wondered what it could be. The first thing that crossed our minds was that these must be some places to give tribute to people who maybe died there in road accidences. As it turned out these little shrines pay homage to Antonio “Gauchito” Gil who was an Argentinean ‘Robin Hood’. January 8th is the day of his death and attracts many pilgrims who place many offering in these little shrines such as photographs, shoes, hair clippings, flowers, balloon, and cigarettes among many others. They say that if you are driving past you must sound your horn or else will suffer long delays or, even worse, not arrive at all. We paid our tribute as well and gave Antonio Gil a couple of good toots, just to be on the safe side.
We arrived in Puerto San Julián safely and stayed on another Camping Municipal. These places are really fantastic! We put our tent up with sea view and first had some coffee. One thing, which is really great in Argentina, is that you can always get some hot water as long as you bring a thermos flask, and often for free. This is mainly because the Argentineans really love to drink their Mate tea whenever and wherever.
After our afternoon coffee, we set off to have a walk through the small town of Puerto San Julián – a lovely little town – but again, really windy! Good night!