Day 9 Zapala to San Raphael, Argentina

Early start this morning as we tackled one of the longest days on the event, 754 kms.  For most of the day we followed part of the famous Ruta 40 which runs for 5000 kilometres, it's one of the longest in the world and runs largely parallel to the Andes.  Some parts were smooth straight tarmac, but we had one 100 km section which was loose gravel with generous amounts of potholes and corrugations it felt awful as the car tried to shake itself to pieces, our teeth will never be the same again.  It was very windy most of the day, The Mighty One doesn't take well to sidewinds, it's about as aerodynamic as a breeze block and as noisy as hell, it becomes quite difficult to handle at times.  It is difficult to appreciate how big the distances are in Argentina, it's  a huge country, you can see for probably a hundred miles in each direction as the air is so clean.  The terrain has been beautiful again today, snowcapped mountains and a volcano thrown in for good luck.  There are goats, horses and sheep running semi wild out on the pararies, occasionally we see grouchos, horsemen riding around tending the animals.  
The cafes and restaurants are mostly family run affairs, this afternoon we ordered two cups of coffee; the son took the order, his sister heated the milk, mother made the coffee, Granny poured it into a cup and father took the money all of which took about 20 minutes, and it was so hot we didn't have time to drink it!
Mechanical woes have started to take their toll now, so far we have have lost 3 cars, The old La France, a Jag and one of the Volvos dropped out today. Jon and Cris have lost a couple of gears in the MGB and will have to whip the gearbox out tomorrow.
Peter has mastered the intricacies of the various forms of navigation we have to do and we are making less mistakes than the early days, we are now lying 8th overall with the big Merc a few seconds behind
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