Day 138: December 30, 2007 Río Gallegos
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
140
202
Trip End
Mar 01, 2008
Rio Gallegos,
Argentina
Sunday, December 30, 2007
We got up an hour earlier to get to the field only to discover that Argentina moved to daylight savings today so it negated our effort. There is now a 3-hour time difference between Argentina and the eastern USA. It was just 1 hour when I arrived and then 2 hours when the US went off of daylight savings.
We ate breakfast and went out to the car to discover a long line of cars blocking us in. Apparently, an announcement was made that gas prices were about to rise so everyone in Argentina is spending their lives in gas lines in hope of saving a few pesos. Fortunately, we had enough gas and didn't need to gas up.
After going through the stupid police check once again we arrived at Pescazaike. For any travelers going through this anachronism of the dictatorships of yesteryear, just tell them that you are going to Pescazaike, which is just a few kilometers away, and they will usually just wave you through.
Based on yesterday's experience with the siltstone at our second site, we decided to rasp the sites up to the tuff layers where the rocks appeared to be more consolidated. Careful not to sample beneath any loose rocks above, we successfully collected seven sites with rasps, along the west wall up to the tuffs before breaking for lunch. The day started off clear and sunny but had clouded over and rained as we ate in the car. By the time we finished the sun was out again.
We broke out the drill and with a little initial difficulty got it running and began to collect from the strata in the volcanic strata. Will noted that a 2-ton block was very unstable so we decided to knock it down so that a kid playing in the area wouldn't accidently dislodge it on himself. With very little effort, it broke free and rolled to the bottom. We did a good deed.It also exposed the details of the volcanic stratigraphy which I discussed with Megan. The rocks drilled beautifully and we made rapid progress, although standing on the steep slopes was slippery and uncomfortable. There were no vertical drops greater than 2 m, however. By 5:00 we reached our 16th and final site. The rocks at the top were the best drilling of all.
Throughout the day, Will was a sampling machine. Working in teams of three has always been the easiest way to do this work. Will collected all of the samples with both rasp and drill. Megan served as the gopher while I took the notes and wrapped the samples. Drilling is a muddy task, especially in the stiff breeze in which we worked throughout the day. Will was completely unaware that his face was completely covered with tan mud and gave a hoot of surprise when he saw himself in the car mirror. The police at the checkpoint never even noticed as they mechanically noted his name and driver's license number and asked for Will's passport. Will never once showed them his passport but they just waved us on through, at least twice a day.
Because we wanted to return the car, we needed to fill the tank but every gas station had lines winding around the block. We stopped by the rental agency and it was closed so we just went to the hotel. To celebrate the completion of the project, we walked across the street to an ice cream place that has the unfortunate name of "Soft Tit". The ice cream was excellent.
We returned to the hotel room where Will and I opened a bottle of wine. I took a shower and Will followed. Upon emerging, he realized that he had left his jacket at Pescazaike. Not being comfortable with either Will or me driving, we volunteered Megan. She was up for the adventure of driving a stick shift in town and then the 27 km to the site. She was a little shaky as we maneuvered past the gas lines and through the chicken corners (corners where there are no stop signs or stop lights) but really did a fine job. The police waved us through the checkpoint and we arrived unscathed. Will retrieved his jacket and we headed back to town. Megan admitted that she was not interested in driving in town again so once we got back to the city, I let Will take us back to the hotel.
We watched a movie with Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock and then walked to the Pizza Express where we ate pizza, empanadas, and french fries. Back at the hotel, all three of us had burning eyes from the dust that had blown into them throughout the day. We called it an early night and went to sleep, closing the shutter on the window for the first time.
