Early in the morning, don't ask me exactly when, I woke up and noticed that the wind calmed down a bit, but was still stable....I got up and checked the conditions: stable wind between 20 and 30 km/h. Ideal conditions for doing my first tries with the buggy and the 1.6 square meter Q2002.
There was only one problem to solve before: I had a really dry throat and needed something wet...but the water was burried somewhere between Agustas and Andreas bed and they were still sleeping....
I think that was the first time that the first thing I drank in the morning was wine, the only liquid I could find. But at least my throat was a somewhat wetter. Then I remembered the Ice Cubes somewhere in a cooler I could reach and began to eat ice......tell me nothing...I know I'm crazy....
Riding the buggy was really great: as I was used to control the kites from my kitesailing experiences with ski on frozen lakes, I could really concentrate on the control of the buggy. And it really worked...sometimes...somehow...more or less.
The longer I was driving the more comfortable I felt in the buggy. I think my topspeed was about 30 km/h, not much, but I was satisfied with that for the first time on the buggy.
After about 2 hours of kiting with the Q2002 the wind calmed down and I thought to be ready to try it with the Quadrifoil Competition XL, 4.8 square meters. The power this kite has is impressive. So I got faster and faster and the faster the kite is, the more power it produces....so much that I started to drift aside....a great thing if you're able to control it after some practice....
....and that's exactly what I didn't have....a very short time later I was saying goodby to the buggy and saying hello to the hard ground.....after that I walked back to the basecamp and put the big one aside.
But there wasn't enough wind to go on with the Q2002 and the rest of us was still sleeping......so I decided to park myself in the shadow in front of the motorhome to take a nap ( which took in the end about 2 hours ).

A while later also the rest of us got up or arrived again from the village but as there was no wind we had time to play some other games like buggy races without kite or other crazy things.
We also had time to watch 'Mini Tornados' or enjoy the high mountains as you can see on the following pictures:
  
It was a pitty, but this was already my last day on the pampa. After playing a lot again with different kites, doing also some tricky flying, and sitting a bit more time in the buggy, my stay in the pampa was over.
Agusta and Andrea decided to stay one more night directly in the pampa to enjoy the stable bearable wind early in the morning which I enjoyed really early in the morning. Henry joined them as well.
I was driven back into the civilization of the village where I was sleeping in an old landhouse, used now as a hotel. This was not because of the good bed, more because of the water which was available there (even in a swimming pool) to get rid of three days dust and mud.
And this was really necessary...I would have been kicked out of the airplane immediately arriving the way I arrived in the village......
Next morning, the 31st of December 1998, ten o'clock in the morning I was picked up by a driver who drove me again to Mendoza where I took the plane back to Misione....I arrived at 10 o'clock in the evening at the house of the parents of my wive...just in time for the yearend party....

This three days in Mendoza were really great. It will stay in my mind forever as an extraordinary experience and adventure.
Many, many thanks to all those who made that event possible, to all members of the meeting, and many many thanks especially to Agusta and Andrea for their great hostage during the three days there.

               Patrik