Nuevo Nomads

Driving away from El Salto was difficult. Its that place in the Andes, where families come out in droves on a beautiful spring day, they gather some river stones to protect the fire for the asado as they serve red wines from the backs of their pickups. When the sun sets and darkness rolls in they drink their mate and watch the stars shine brightly and the many satellites stream across the night sky.

We are driving down route 40, and the southern spines of the Andes. Big sky country, four and a half hours to Malargüe, a touristic town known for its historic dinosaur finds. The road is endless and with wide open views of the snow-capped Andes mountains. The range seems to end, yet every turn on the road , new mountains appear. We passed huge fields of garlic, grazing cows and sheep and arrived at our hotel with a front yard filled with sheep.