Together on Wheels

Kasper, Laila, Moos en Atlas

PATAGONIA – We are still driving south and the landscape has transformed quite a lot. The green is gone, say hello to brown and yellow. The spaces are wide and open, almost desert-like sometime, but there is a lot of live. We see foxes, a magnificent owl, guanacos, nandu, a skunk, armadillos and many other animals.

Patagonia is famous for its strong winds. We know why now, on the open steppes the wind is boss. Sometimes it is difficult to find shelter, but we don’t mind to sleep in the open. Most of the times in the night the wind get’s more quiet and we can still sleep in the roof tent.

The roads can be a little bit boring sometime, especially the ‘routa 40’. Strait ahead for hours, with nothing but horizon. But boring in a nice way, almost like a meditation. Nevertheless we are always glad to get of the road, take a detour to a place that looks nice on the map, or just stop for a cup of coffee.

Maybe the nicest places in Argentina for us so far is the national park ‘Perito Moreno’. This is how we fantasized Patagonia would be like! First of all there is nobody there, not a tourist in sight. The landscape is spectacular and full of animals (drive slow, guanaco’s on the road!). And last but not least we where very lucky with the weather during the week we stayed in the park.

But… like the title already tells, we fly high to find us falling down hard the next moment. The last day in the park while making lunch, in a split second when we are not looking, Moos grabs a cup of boiling hot coffee and gets it full in his face and chest. Our dream becomes a nightmare.

To tell the rest of the story short, we get into survival mode and start doing what we need to do. Next we get in the car and drive to the office of the park rangers, we tell them to call the hospital in the next town to let them know we are coming. It is another two hundred and thirty kilometers more before we get to the hospital.

The next six nights we sleep in the hospital. The first day was really emotional, how could we have let this happen!? And how bad is it!? From there it got better and better every day. Slowly we started to get back up.

People helped us fantastically, the neighbor of the hospital was there day and night if we needed something, the doctor and nurses let us bathe and dress Moos his wounds ourself, and friends and family back home helped us where they could. THANK YOU! And let’s not forget the star of the show, Moos was already smiling and having fun again on the second day. What a guy!

After the hospital we rented a little house for ten days to make it more easy to take care of Moos. We feel grateful Moos is healing really fast and we enjoy our time together even more. We hope to be on the road again soon. Inshallah!

‘Fly high, fall deep, get back up’. For sure we will try to learn something from what happened. Maybe the best thing we can do now is to enjoy everything even more! Life is a gift 🙂