We’ve just left the coastal road and turned back onto the main road. We climb higher up the mountains and then, as we come around a tight corner, the road opens up into a sort of narrow water chute valley, the road running along the valley floor and the sides rising gently just meters from the road. There is snow coming down from the peaks both right and left, flowing down the slope almost all the way to the banks of the road, big blotches of bare earth here and there in a sort of gigantic camouflage pattern. The sun shines down on us from a blue sky dotted with tufts of cloud and makes the snow sparkle and we can see for miles ahead how the road flows down the mountain in big sweeping curves. When this is what the world has to offer it feels good to be alive.