Day 134: December 26, 2007 Río Gallegos
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
136
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
Rio Gallegos,
Argentina
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
We loaded our gear in the car and headed out to reconnoiter the area and find a place to work. After passing through the annoying police checkpoint at Güer Aike, we crossed the Río Gallegos and noticed a small exposure near the shrine at Pescazaike on the far side of the bridge. We continued up Ruta 3 to the top of the plateau and took the road toward El Indio oilfield. On Google Earth, we had spotted a possble worksite and quickly found the access trail. We walked down the trail for about two miles passing numerous sheep skeletons and carcasses. We went the entire way without seeing a single outcrop until we reached the riverbank. We did see a guanaco and several hares, however.
The riverbank exposures were good but were too steep to be useful
Hiking Toward the River
. Dejected, we started the walk back up to the car. Will noticed a bone sticking out of an outcrop in the small streambed. He, Megan, and I quickly found many others. The temptation to sample them was almost overwhelming but I managed to refrain and warned the others that it was strictly illegal to collect vertebrate fossils without a permit. We will leave that for vertebrate paleontologists. I will report the site to one of them.We returned to the road and decided to visit the outcrop we had seen at Pescazaike. As soon as we drove in, I knew it was the place. Although steep and crumbly, there were well worn paths through the section. I estimated its thickness to be less than 50 meters.
Glad to have found a place to work, we returned to town. After drinking ur traditional evenng bottle of wine, we walked down to El Roco where we shared an excellent salmon with cilantro pesto. We stopped at an internet place on the way back and then returned to the hotel, ready for the field in the morning.
