Day 135: December 27, 2007 Río Gallegos
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
137
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
Rio Gallegos,
Argentina
Thursday, December 27, 2007
After breakfast, we dropped our dirty clothes at a laundromat and bought food for lunch. I bought a 20-liter jug at a hardware store to carry extra water for the drill. We stopped at the Esso station to get gas, 2-cycle engine oil, and water for the drilling. We noted that their confitería had Wi-Fi. Maybe someday Brevard will be like this gas station near the end of the world. Then, we headed out to Pezcazaike to begin our sampling and section measurement and description. The day was overcast but there was almost no wind, thankfully.
We could not get the drill started. It would flood and bleed fuel-not a good sign. We tinkered with it until noon and then decided that Megan and I would begin measuring while Will took the drill to the YPF station to see if they could figure out the problem. Megan and I began measuring on the slippery slope through the flat-lying section. It went pretty quickly. We were up to the volcanic ash beds by the time Will returned with news that no one was able to help him and that he had been hassled at the police checkpoint at Güer Aike.
The three of us finished measuring the section. To my surprise, it was only 28 m thick. Megan found some leaf fossils near the top which were exquisitely preserved. Even though the section is thin, it could be important as it records the transition from a fluvio-deltaic environment into one which was inundated with volcanic ash. We'll see what we can learn.
We returned to town around 5:00. Will and I went to see if we could buy a tool to get the odd-sized spark plug out of the drill. This led us to a mechanic who got the plug out. We put a new one in but still had no success. The mechanic gave us the name of another mechanic out on the highway who worked on small engines. We found the shop of Hector Mayeste. He was busy so we left the drill with him and told him we would return in the morning to see if he could fix it.
Will and I picked up the laundry and returned to the hotel. Megan was wondering what had happened to us as she tapped away on her Wi-Fi connection in our hotel room. Maybe someday Brevard will be like this 2-star hotel in Río Gallegos.
We drank a bottle of Quara Syrah, which was excellent, before going out to look for a restaurant. We settled on the pizza place we had eaten a couple of nights before. After dinner we strolled back to the hotel and turned in.
