Argentinian southern Patagonia is a land of rolling sandy hills with sparse vegetation inhabited by gauchos (Argentinian cowboys), oil drilling industry workers, thousands of species of llama and millions of sheep. What one notices immediately is the enormously powerful and unrelenting cold wind. It makes it hard to walk and brings with it particles of sand that always seem to find their way into your mouth. I constantly felt the grains in between my teeth, to which I never got used to.
Normally this would be a rather monotonous drive but here is where our vehicle problems began. As we pressed down on the acceleration pedal nothing happened and the van started losing speed. Then the engine sputtered for some time and we regained acceleration. Then we lost it again and this kept repeating. The odyssey visiting mechanics began. Nevertheless we managed to reach the Strait of Magellan that was the dividing line between us and Tierra del Fuego.