Patagonia 2010

It's Christmas Day and I'm waiting to board my flight to Buenos Aires. I had no trouble getting to Atlanta from Boston, which was the only leg that worried me, being December and all. I had added a buffer day to ensure I'd make it and I was at this point excited about a full extra day in Argentina. Unfortunately, this plane did not take off on this day, due to a maintenance issue. I spent Christmas night at the Westin Atlanta Airport, arriving there at 1:30am.

Now it's December 26 and we're finally underway. My seatmate wants to see what the 14-24mm lens can do. I oblige.

My seatmate had splendid window lighting and didn't mind that I photographed all her meals. Pity I didn't think to get her e-mail address.

I suppose remaining a consistent 6 miles from Bolivia was safe enough.

This is Day 17 of our 18-day workshop, and it's also our first glimpse at the civil unrest that will keep us here a 3 extra days. The right turn ahead where all these cars are is the airport at Puerto Natales. They see the tourist bus approaching and will back up to entirely block the road. Then they'll join hands for a bit in front of our bus before returning their attention to the folks trying to operate the tiny airport.

The gate at the entrance to the airport. The black flag is the symbol of the protest.

After the protesters managed to lock the gate at the airport, they cheered and jumped in their cars and drove away. We thought the crisis was averted. Wrong. A couple of miles later, we arrived here, where the real action was. The bus would go no further than this. However, the protesters will allow us to gather up our belongings and walk through the barricade, in between two of those trucks. The town of Puerto Natales is about 3 miles away, so we walk there and check into the Hotel. It wasn't in our plan to stay here but where else are we going to go?

Looks like a big pile of wood. These people expect to be here for a while, I'd guess.