We rented a car and drove up into the mountains today. They're so close--this valley is narrow with towering mountains on two sides that we only just get to glimpse because of the low cloud cover. But with Claudio's help we found a river that joins Lago Epuyen and Lago Puelo and fished it, along with visiting Lago Epuyen as well.

This is wild country. It's settled, but sparsely. Driving through it there are places you can entirely forget you're not in Montana, until you come upon a strange conglomerate of shacks/sheds/animal pens. I don't even think they'd call these pueblos, they're almost like summer cabins for the poor with really bad taste.

It's good for the soul to see there's still country like this, but to find really desolate, unoccupied land you need to go further south around El Calafate where the glaciers are. There the wind wipes clean the trash people do and leaves only tenacious shrubs and bent low to the ground scrubby trees. Even the people looked scrubbed by the incessant wind. 

It was so fun to have a car we're thinking we might try driving part of our next trip to either Argentina or Chile, a couple of pretty safe, familiar countries. We love discovering new places and having the freedom to stop whenever we want. 

And Bob's getting really good with the brakes when I grab my camera and holler STOP!