Monday, December 22, 2014

How Hitting a Deer Leads to Patagonia

Some days are just like this--the intent was to post a video of a cyclist hitting a deer on Facebook for a cycling friend (as you can see here):





Clearly this would have been a simple two minute task which was interrupted by someone who had a visual representation of all air traffic in the world during a day. As you watch this you'll see that there are aircraft outliers that are flying to remote parts of the world that should pique anyone's curiosity.


Pay attention to South America in this visual - you can see some aircraft heading deep into and leaving Patagonia near its southern tip, but not to the Falkland Islands:

Aircraft flying into Patagonia

Is there much down there? Zooming into Google Maps reveals this:

Map of South America and Patagonia

You can see there is one city - Rio Gallegos that has an airport large enough for these flights. Patagonia is mostly arid and flat - so let's drive west out of Rio Gallegos on Ruta Nacional 3 and see:

Ruta Nacional 3 in Patagonia

Nice road - no one there - whatever you do, don't get stranded in that you might meet this two-headed creature;



or, wear loose clothing since Wikipedia reports "It is one of the windiest cities on earth, with winds above 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) being commonplace, and over 100 km/h (62 mph) not exceptional."

Update 9 hours later! About an hour after posting this while eating lunch I went to a meeting in which a woman put on a grey Patagonia sweater top near the end - needless to say I was a bit taken aback.

Another update: Here is travel between Rio Gallegos and Ushuaia on Route 3 (Argentina) and Routes 257 and Y9 (Chile). Ferry outlet, 110 km of gravel road on the Chilean side of the Big Island and snow in the mountains Route 3 stretch before arriving at Ushuaia.


 

Heuristic: Natural (Avoidance of strangely evolved creatures)