At 7 we already got breakfast and more importantly some coffee.
We had to get all our gear and food for the next 10 days on the trek, but since the supermarket was not going to open until 9 we decided to walk around town a bit and get a Geocache. It wasn't far, just down the road at the water of the bay next to a statue of a sort of Polar bear. I always thought they only live up in the north and not down here. As it turned out it was a prehistoric polar bear. It looked a bit different than the ones on TV, alright.
Anyway, now it was time to go and get our massive grocery shopping done.
It was going to be 9 days of three meals for two people - that means a lot - especially a lot of weight.
we went to this Unimarc Supermarket which was not at all very diverse in terms of choice. One kind of pasta, one sort of sauce and so on.
Well, in the instant soup section we did have a bit of choice between and got a soup for each day. Both of us also selected an estimated amount of cerials, musli bars and so on for breakfast and lunch. We won't be bothering with cooking lunch at midday. A quick snack must suffice and then a proper meal in the evening when the tent is pitched up.
Now for the dinner: we got some pasta, and sauces, and thought we may need some reward once every now and then, so we got also some fajitas, two packs of cheese and some salami, chorizo and ham mix. Our plan was to fry the meat and roll it up with cheese and enjoy.
Other bits and pieces were also needed, like toilet paper, bags and of course coffee.
As the crown of our shopping trip we decided to go all out and get a bottle of whiskey. The best should just be good enough so we went for an 18 year old Chivas Regal. Unfortunately we were disappointed at the cashier, when we gave them the empty display box and they could not find the matching bottle.
We had to settle on only the 12 yo one then. :-(
In the end we had two heavy boxes of food and drink to carry back to the hostel. We unpacked all our stuff, and left everything not needed in a big clear bag I got from the airline to put my backpack into when I came to Chile. All our stiff we didn't bring was probbaly 18 or 20 kg on it's own. This should mean my trekking backpack should be very light. It was indeed, until we added the cooker and the food.
Just by guessing it was certainly over 15 kg. Maybe closer to 18kg - but it would get lighter. Kai had his brand new tent in his large backpack and I had the gas stove and pots. It was also time to put as much Ampere Hours into all our devices as possible since we didn't know when we'll get a chance to charge tehm again.
Now it was time to get out again and get a sleeping mat - I didn't have one and a sleeping bag (mine was not going to be warm enough.
The sleeping bag was going to be rented (for 3000 Peso a night) and the mat was cheaper to buy than to rent.
In the end all these things just about fit in the bag. The other Airline plastic bag we could store for free at the Hostel until our return.
An additional edge was a cool lumberjack looking guy from Alaska who traded zip lock bags and chillies (that we didnt find in the supermarket) agains a sip of our whisky (which by now had been moved to plastic bottles).
So we were all set to go.
Just when I squeezed the last little item into the top pocket of my backpack the zipper tore apart and couldn't get it back working again. So all the stuff from that top compartment had to move into the main compartment of the bag. My loyal bag friend is slowly but surely dissolving - first the back support, then a rip in one of the pockets and now the zipper.. brave little guy though!
Still a little time left to get some lunch and then head over to the bus to the park.
At the food place (that looked very much like a fast food place to us) we ordered two burgers which unfortunately took about 20 or 30 minutes to compose, so that we had to take them "to go" and basically run, with the burgers in our hands back to the hostel, pick up our bags and run to the bus station.
When we got there it turned out that we still had half an hour but the burgers tasted as good there on a bench as they would have in the restaurant.
It was a 3 hour bus ride through very very barren landscape, spotted with the odd alpaca until we got to the parc entrance, where we had to fill out some forms, pay some money and listen to a anti fire briefing.
Then back on the bus we rode to a boat and were hit the first time with the full force of the Patagonian Wind. The map that I had tucked under a strap of my backpack was ripped out and blown half way down the road. I was just about able to catch it. Neary commited the second worse criminal act of littering.
On Lake Pehoe the wind only increased but we refused to go under deck and be weak. Come on Nature... show us what you got.
The enticipation of our adventure was rising in us and then we arrived at Regufio y Campiamento Paine Grande.
Got a ticket for our tent for 15 USD or so and started to pitch up our tent. There were already probably 50 or so tents pitched up and it looked like a dutch camp ground (aside from the imposing mountains and the crystal clear lake surrounding it).
It was the first time for this tent to be set up as it just arrived before Kai left Germany.
Let's hope Black Diamand packed all the things we need.
They did indeed but it took us nearly an hour to assemble this tent. It's apparently the most wind resistant tent out there, so it should be just perfect for this place. Unfortunately while setting it up we noticed one of the poles was too long to fit into it's fitting and forcing it in damaged the material and it ripped. The only positive thing about this was that it was in place that was not essential for setting it up and the area was covered by another layer of material, but it was a shame. The brand new, quite expensive tent was already damaged before we spent a night in it.
Only a bowl of soup and the beers we carried with us for the first night (whiskey is more weight efficient booze) could help now.
So we set up our cooker in the sheltered hut and had some soup, a beer and some nachos - the salsa that should have accompanied the nachos turned out to be just tomato sauce.
So far not a brilliant start into our trek, but our mood was not completely destroyed.
Later that night around 3 am I had already been fighting the thought of going out for a piss for about 30 minutes I decided to get it over with.
The outside sounded scary in the tent... the wind was howling and I expected to walk out into a sort of crazy storm, but when I opened the tent I was gobsmacked by the sight above me.
There it was ... the best night sky I had ever seen. Billions (I'm not lying) of stars, the milky way as obvious to see as a chocolate bar on a table, even a black hole (not one with high gravity but a lack of stars) was visible within the milky way.
Kai, being a an astronomer even spotted stars signs as the Southern Cross that are only visible on this side of our planet.
For a coupe of seconds I forgot why I got up - but remembered again. After I was finished we took a few shots of the night sky and returned to the well deserved sleep.
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