An education from the Judge

Via the various travelling websites on the interweb I met up with an American who has just finished his trip from Nevada to Buenos Aires via Ushuaia.

Dave is an interesting character, a lawyer who has recently retired to the bench and sits by rotation. We had a coffee down by the marina and he kindly brought some maps, papers and books for me. What was immediately clear was that I will need to plan the trip more than I had intended.

Fuel stops (which I sort of knew), Accommodation and Ferry crossings to name the main things. I am also going to have to do more miles per day (on average) than i had intended. For example, when he came through Peru he averaged about 35 miph. The winds down in Patagonia reduce the range on a tank of fuel to 250 miles (sounds a lot until you see how far apart the towns are). Fuel is not awlays available at the stations and if they have it you  may be queing for 2 hours

On the good side, he talked of all the great roads and sights.Thankfully there were relatively few "this is a dangerous road" or "I was nearly killed here" as he scrawled on the old map.The trouble at boarder crossings and attacks (cobblestone to the head of a friend of his) were generally in Central America, which suits me, as I dont intend to go that far North.

After coffee we wandered up to the Presidential palace a big pink building. The Judge had obviously studied the history of the countries visited and made me feel rather inadequate so i will have to do some reading. We joined a tour of the building with a bi-lingual guide which was great, the only trouble was his two languages were Spanish and Portugese.Any way we sort of got he gist of it.

This is the view from the balcony where the Peron's addressed the masses. Just out of shot on the right were the armoured personnel carriers and the Water Canon so my attempts to raise the issue of the Falklands was quoshed.

This is a soldier who smiled a lot, especially when i tripped up the steps in my flip flops just after taking this picture!

The Judge was taking an unusual amount of interest in the art on the walls. They are celebrating 200 years as a nation so pulled in a few works of the great and good of Latin politics. Che was there along with Zapata, Belgrano and of course Evita. It transpires that the Judges mother (an artist &  teacher) lived in Springs NY at the time of Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko etc. He remembers them as a child, it sounds like they drank alot. One time, knowing deKooning didn't like water, they organised a sailing trip to tease him. de Kooning got so drunk he threw up all over the boat.

Just shows you never know who you are going to meet or the stories thay have to tell. Did i mention i felt rather inadequate?

Tour over, I offered to buy The Judge lunch - curiously he choose Chinese? Well, I suppose he had been eating Guniea Pig for 3 months so it must have made a nice change.