Only George Bush could love a oil town like Comodoro Rivadavia. This stretch of coast along the Gulf of San Jorge is not ideal for sightseeing. I continued on to Trelew where I stopped to check out The MEF. This is a quality paleontology museum in the heart of dinosaur country. Patagonia is to paleontologists what Vegas is to gamblers. I don't know if these guys are better at finding old bones or coming up with fun names that convey size: Megaraptor, Titanosaurs and Giganotosaurus are good examples. It's no coincidence that oil companies and dinosaur scientists are operating in close proximity here. Solyent Green is people and fossil fuel is liquid gasosaurus.
In the old welsh frontier town of Gaiman I found a $25 room in an 1867 hotel on main street. This part of town feels like an old western - patagonia style. The room, with its creeky hardwood floors, high ceilings and big antique bed, did not disappoint.
Later that day I stopped at a welsh tea house visited by Princess Diana 10 years back. There you can see the chair she sat in. (I have a picture of her in my mind from the day I saw her coming out of a hotel in New York). The tea house gardens and the nearby river are also beautiful to see.
Returning to main street I was surprised to find 15 to 20 Ford Falcons lined up in front of the hotel for a thunderous rally. The surprise was the setting, not the vehicle, since the Falcon is the classic car in Argentina.
The young Ford enthusiasts gathered in Gaiman that afternoon were writing a new chapter in the Falcon's history. Here were more than a dozen examples in very good condition and each one sounding as loud as an F15. Everyone was making good use of that dinosaur oil.
The next day I was heading west on Route 25 and moving fast when I came up on a venue of huge bald vultures feeding on a rabbit carcass. When they saw the Kia approaching they started flapping and taking off, but one made a bad low turn and the truck slammed into him at high speed. I could feel the weight of it at impact. I stopped in a state of shock. I went back and looked around but couldn't locate anything. There was blood on the bumper but he was gone. I waited nearby but obviously the rabbit was now deemed too risky by these living dinosaurs. They didn't make it this far by being stupid.
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