04 January 2011

I did not wake up until 9am. Seeing the time I hurried to prepare for the long hike ahead. The wind was rattling my tent back and forth and I thought it would be terrible if it got blown loose from the ground.

The first part of the trail was a steady ascent up the side of a hill. I ran some of the way up to get away from the loud chattering people behind me. From the top of the hill to Camp Chileno was an easy descent. It was very windy at the top. Down at camp it was mostly flat with not as many steep ascents as the first part of the trail.

The path to the lookout point for the torres was excruciating. Winding up the side of the mountain among huge boulders and bonsai looking trees with orange markers to direct you. It would’ve been easy to lose the trail without the guideposts. With each step my legs cried out for mercy. The sky was clear and the sun was hot. I forgot my wide brimmed trekking hat so there was no protection for my face.

Weird twisted tree

Almost there

Finally at the top, but the lookout point and the towers were ensconced in clouds. The peaks weren’t visible at all. I stayed for about an hour eating lunch, taking photos, resting, and waiting for the clouds to vanish, revealing the towers. I even took a group photo for the loud chatterboxes I had run from. One of the three looked like Che with his beard and beret.

It was easier to hike back down but very slippery. I almost fell a few times. Looking back I could see the clouds start to break apart. Figures. It only took five hours to do a roundtrip.

I filled up my water bottle from this stream

These little flowers were growing all over the place

Back at camp I ate a can of pea and ham and bacon broth soup which was not soup but real thick like paste. I also spoke with a Canadian couple who rode bikes to Arizona then bought a Suzuki and drove down here. Been on the road for a year and a half. The first thing the man asked was about my stickers. “Are they anti-gay or anti-Cusco?”, he asked and when I said anti-gay he asked why I would wear my hate out so openly. But we ended up talking about the road. They told me how to get to El Calafate. The man’s name is Tron.

I went over to my tent and saw two people messing around it. They asked if it was mine and said that it had blown over on top of their tent. Some of the flimsy spikes were gone but thankfully I had some stronger ones in the car. I used the rocks they had placed on it to reinforce the spikes. Hopefully it doesn’t move again.

After that I took a shower and got ready for bed. The wind kept blowing ferociously. I took out my shortwave radio and was able to listen to jazz as I fell asleep.