The Big Hard Sun

One of our best moments in Patagonia was our drive from San Martin to Volcan Lanin.

The weather forecast had promised a beautiful clear day for viewing the volcano, so we are surprised when we awake to grey clouds covering the town and valley. Undaunted, we set out, convinced it will clear — at least I am convinced it will clear.

"It isn't going to clear," says Jenn the optimist.

"We'll see."

"Hmmm." She scans the grey sky. "No way. If this clears up and we can even see the volcano, I'll suck my big toe."

"Well, get ready to pull off your socks, baby..."

But even I'm dubious now. We are in the midst of a convoy of cars, moving carefully north through the mist. On the car stereo is Eddie Vedder and his Into The Wild soundtrack. We watched the movie again while in Buenos Aires (an exercise in subtitles). After two weeks of intense city life, the wilderness scenes and anti-society messages of the movie were much appreciated. The soundtrack is also one of our favourites.

"There!" I point upwards to the sun, squinting through the mist and cloud cover. "It's trying."

"And...," Jenn peers upwards. "...now it's gone."

It is indeed gone. But there is something peculiar about they way it appears in the sky, as if not quite fully trapped behind regular cloud cover.

The iPod loads up Eddie's version of 'Hard Sun' and we sing along. As the chorus begins to swell up, as if on cue, the sky outside starts to change, begins to brighten...

'It's a big... big, hard sun....'

Whoosh! We literally burst out of the clouds into a bright, white world. It is as if someone has yanked back the covers to reveal the most pristine and cloudless day completed by an endless sky of blue. Behind us, we can now see the dense blanket of cloud cover that had enveloped the valley, fooling us into thinking the forecast was wrong. Ahead, there is nothing but the open road, vast blue sky, jagged peaks and rock faces, the patagonia steppe and just beyond that, the white snowy tip of Volcan Lanin.





"Might want to pull those socks off and start sucking."

Both of us are close to tears, too entranced with the beauty of it all to even bother following up on that end of the bargain.