zapadoo zapala

after days of driving through endless ribbons of bad, pot-holed and graveled undulating roads, feeling like ants running on treadmills through kaleidoscopes of multi-coloured mountains and multi-coloured sunsets, we are in the town of zapala (a funny name indeed.. we were just thinking we should make a "b-grade" movie here called "The Murderer of Zapala" or something..hahaha...), described in lonely planet as an "economically-depressing, mining town" which is anything but such..(except that we have decided it is "gastronomically-depressing", what with the limited choice of available restaurants)..

since the start of the journey, we have covered some 3,500km and have still another 3,000 km plus before we reach Ushuaia.. the past two days have been my geography lessons come alive.. after all, the Andes mountain range was created some 120 million years ago (i learnt this in Spanish from the guide to this limestone cave place called the "Cave of the Witches") due to massive plate tectonic forces of folding and faulting.. (or something like that).. as we drove through the area, weaving our way around the mountains, we were stunned by how tiny and insignificant we felt in the mighty result of nature´s forces, as well as the variety of shapes and colours in the rock formations.. volcanoes and crater lakes were aplenty and after driving for like some 2 hours, i was hypnotised by the rocky scene in front of me, broken only occassionally by the random sheep standing in the middle of the road, a couple of ostrich-like birds running in the arid foreground, some eagles in the air, and strange abandoned primitive settlements along the edges of the lakes..

patagonia.. another name for mystery and desolation..