Hiking in the snow
Day 93, Wed Dec 1 El Chalten
El Chalten is very small and has one ATM, which was out of cash for almost 3 quarters of the time I was in town! But most people come there to hike, to catch a glimpse of or to climb Cerro Torre or Fitz Roy.
The sight of snow fall did little to make me think that the day held much promise, as I prepared my breakfast in the kitchen. However, the sky did clear in about an hour. As I was getting ready to head out on a hike, who should walk in the door, but two friends from the Navimag trip – Luis and Gary. We ended up doing a 6 hour hike to Laguna Torres and Lago Madre y Higa.
The clouds prevented us from getting any view of Cerro Torre or Cerro Fitz Roy. I imagine I have to be content with images of the peaks from google! The hike got us feeling cold, wet and miserable as we hiked in the snow for quite a bit! The wind and the wet plants ended up encouraging us to shorten the hike from a 8 hours to 6 hours. Probably a good thing as my knee was starting to hurt after I twisted it while stumbling over a root.
Had lunch and dinner at the same restaurant. The food and the pretty waitress had something to do with it! We had an extra person at dinner as we ran into an Aussie who had set up camp next to us most of the hike in Torres del Paine. We backpackers tend to follow the same route, and it is quite common to run into the same people multiple times!
The weather forecast for the next day didnt seem any better, so I decided to curtail my intended two day stay to 1 day and to travel with Gary to Puerto Madryn. Arranging bus tickets took a while. I was extremely tired by the time I crawled into bed and set my alarm for 5 the next morning!
Tags: Travel
Damu