Rio Gallegos (Drive day 236: Feb 20th, 2004)
If the puma don’t get the sheep this town is where they end up and become mutton. It’s the first less-than-lovely place we’ve found so far in Argentina, which probably explains why we can find primo camp spots with no other visitors in sight. We have to hunt down the keeper of the keys to tour the town’s railway museum – Rio Gallegos boasts the southernmost railroad track in the world. I want to be a town booster, but in truth it creeps me out.
I’m not alone. This was the place Magellan wanted his fleet to winter and when a couple of captains tried to sneak back to Spain – one of them got caught and stabbed to death. Then, just to discourage other attempts at mutiny, his body was drawn and quartered in front of the crew.
Follow this bonus-material blog and ride along on a one-year road trip that inspired the memoir The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan American Highway. On sale now. Get yours through the buy-the-book links at the bottom of the landing page on my teresabrucebooks.com website or here or here. Planning a road trip? Buy the audiobook here. Like The Drive’s Facebook page and tweet back at me @writerteresa. Like travel anthologies? I’m in a brand new one called Alone Together: Tales of Sisterhood and Solitude in Latin America which you can get here.
"TeresaBruceBooks" 