The overlander trip begins !!!!

The trip begins going North to see Ivan and Kim in Villa Carlos Paz.   The drive, (typical for Belgrano), starts in a thunderstorm downpour, but then as I approach Cordoba quickly turns into sunshine.  I arrive without getting stuck,  waiving myself into town, and navigate through traffic (made easier by all the traffic getting out of my way).

The picture above is the beast parked in front of their house.  Kim showed me how to post to my blog and Ivan got me onto "whatsApp" which everyone here uses to communicate.   The town is on a beautiful lake and reminded me of Geneva Switzerland.   We had a great walk around town.  There house is modest but a lot bigger than the beast and nicely appointed.   Also,  and more importantly, Ivans got a garage to die for ......  We had a great dinner / breakfast.  The next morning I awoke to the sound of hoofs on pavement and dogs barking at the hoofs (clop clop clop ... woof woof woof).  Got up in the warm summer air and drove south east about an hour to the museum / house of Che in Alta Gracia.

Here is the house Che grow up in.  No matter what your political persuasion is, one can admire Che for pursuing his principles and ideas.   Interesting that they say that he was killed on orders from the Bolivian government, not by the CIA like I was told in high school.

 

After reflecting that Che's boyhood must have been much like a upper middle class life in the USA, I drove onto Villa Maria to see Lunciano Zurro to go kiteboarding.  

While there was not enough wind for kiteboarding, I did have a great time with Lunciano and friends.  I arrived in downtown Villa Maria at 11:00am at the height of rush hour .. crowed busy streets with evil trees hanging over all the unavailable parking spaces, ready to grab and scratch at the beast.  Our arrival caused some commotion and cars were moved to allow a space to park.   What a fine person Luciano is. I meet his lovely wife and two small and smiling kids.  We then were off about an hour SW to the "lake" (see above map Chazon) where we sat inside an abandon fishing club, eating a great barbecue, and waited for the rain to stop, and froze.  These guys are really fun to be around. 

The club and fishing. 

I happily stayed the next two nights at the local gas station with internet, but not before I was able to get stuck again.

 I did not know it but for the paste 4 years or so, this tiny tree was growing in just the right spot along side the road (and the only tiny tree) so that I could try my winch out (16 tones !!) .  Lunciano, true to his excellent character,  quickly took advantage of the situation and hooks the cable around it.  I was out of the ditch in no time and grateful to get to the safety of the gas station's parking lot.

I am thinking at this point that the beast does not like wet ground.

Wonderful free place to spend the night with internet !!  See the beast at the end of the parking lot.

After two relaxing days, and some fun times with the guys trying to catch enormous carp in the local stream, (see above picture)  I head out for the 1st time with no particular direction expect SW to Patagonia.