Here we had our lunch break and I rewarded myself with a snickers... ohhh that was good.
We walked past lovely scenery, lakes, mountains and our conversations, although we had only been walking for a day and a half already mainly centred around food. We could start a conversation about combustion engines or philosophy but somehow one of us always (and very quickly) found a connection to some sort of food.
This urge was only amplified by the intense weight of my backpack. It was not really an extremely long distance we trekked today but the bag really made it unpleasant for some of the time. I wanted to eat all the food that was in the bag so that I would not have to carry it any more.
The distance of today's section felt much longer than the signs and map would suggest.
Our plan for the night was to get to Hotel Las Torres, which is a place accessible by road. Apparently there was not just a Hotel but also a place to camp and after a loooong day's hiking a large structure, looking very much like a posh alpine ski resort slowly materialized at the horizon and soon we would be there. For me it felt a bit like an Oasis in the distance. Soon we had reached the main structure but the camp ground was another kilometre and a half or so down there road. This wouldn't make much of a difference any more.
It was pretty empty and we could choose our spot. It started to look like rain and very soon we felt the first drops, so setting up our tent was even quicker than the day before and just when we finished the rain started a little stronger (not crazy but it was not just drizzle any more).
Soon the rain faded away a bit and we went over to the registration office where there was also a sort of refugio and a little shop (remember - this place was street accessible). And there, in the display case was a lovely 160g bar of Nestle Almond chocolate. I was extremely happy about this little bar of chocolate.
This should not at all be the end of our capitalistic crusade for the evening.
Next was to go over to the hotel and check if they had internet as we needed to book a Hostel in San Pedro - this place can become very busy we had heard.
The majestic wooden entrance hall of the Hotel was quite impressive (I felt like we had been in the woods for weeks, rather than 2 days) and the internet was not the only temptation in this place.
There was cold, patgonian beer from the tap. We got two big ones and settled on a couch across from a Austrian Couple that were staying in the fancy Hotel.
Of course the prices here were far beyond my desired budget but I couldn't resist either the beer nor the Sausage platter.
Soon we got talking to the elder couple who were real adventurers, luxurious adventurers but Adventures nonetheless.
The had just returned from a cruise past Antarctica where they had visited plenty of penguins and then on the way back had to do an emergency stop at a Military base on the Falkland Islands, because of a medical emergency on board and so on.
They did all this in style but also had stories present from 30 years ago when they backpacked through South America on certainly a more limited budget then we are now.
It was really nice chatting with them and we also later shared a table when we decided to rather order a Pizza with Patagonian Sheep than eat from our food and reduce the weight of the backpack :-).
At last they even invited us to a Pisco Sour (we are not going to go into the discussion if this is a Chilean or a Peruvian drink now).
Unfortunately the Pizza was a bit of disappointment while the drink was nice. Also while we were sitting there in the warm protection of the Hotel lounge it was raining and storming very strong outside... even the large glass surfaces of the Hotel lounge very shaking like crazy... We were just hoping that our tent was still there where we put it up earlier that evening.
Soon it was time to head back to the tent to - it's been a long and exhausting day.
On the way to the camp site while walking through the dark we ran into a couple of lost trekkers (it was past 11 by now) who just struggled back to the camp and had cuts and bruises all over their faces. Apparently they were caught out in the storm and attacked by branches and got lost.
This of course reminded me (just because of being sort of an emergency situation) of the snow storm in the Himalayas, and I was happy to be able to help them, calm them down a bit and guide them to the Refugio.
It was good to finally be in our sleeping bags and although the wind was howling around us it didn't take long for us to fall into a deep sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment