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We were on our way early – headed to General Roca.
The flight was quite short .. we enjoyed the good early morning weather.
We filled our tanks and after checking the weather
and routes were on our way. The local pilots and instructors are always the best sources of information … they know the airfields, the weather, the areas to avoid and who to deal with. At General Roca we got all the
advice we needed from the resident instructor – a pilot of over 20,000 hours experience.
We were now into Patagonia. We hadn't planned to fly
this far south, but the Andes Mountains are very high in the north and because of this decided to head southwards where the weather is worse but the mountains lower. We didn't want to cross mountains higher than
10,000 ft – and preferably only 7 or 8,000 ft.
After a few hours we landed in the road for a rest
and lunch. The turbulence was fierce and neither of us felt comfortable. It always takes a while to get used to the turbulence on a trip like this.
Another few hours and we landed at St Martin de Los
Andes. St Martin de Los Andes is a small holiday town at the base of the Andes Mountains. We approached at 9,000 ft – trying to keep out of the worst of the turbulence.
We met the local beaurocrat, who rattled away at
Olivier in Spanish for a few hours. A taxi ride of 20 km to town and we booked into a hotel. It was our first night in a hotel.
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