Laguna Torre

After so many good hikes, I too got those famous quarter size blisters everyone talked about.
Fro two days, I did nothing. My blisters kept filling up again and again, even after I would poke wholes on them.
I met two Argentines, a pareja, who appeared to have come to Chalten to put their relationship to the test.
Their very first night , the girl had a nightmare and woke up the entire campsite with the loudest yell. The guy had lived in Brazil when he was 5 years old and spoke good Portuguese.
We chatted a lot and they were very friendly. We decided to head to Laguna Torre together in the next couple of days, as soon as my blisters healed okay.
The hike there was a lot of fun. They were friendly and even though they were both in better shape than I was, they slowed down to my pace so we could all enjoy the trek. They gave me some good pointers on places to stay and spots to go. She was addicted to "the Lord of the Rings" and on our way to the Lagune, we had to walk through this forest that was exactly like Treebeard's. We kept making references to teh book and really felt like we were a fellowship ourselves.
This might sound really dorky to the average reader, (assuming anyone is ever even going to read this), but if you were there, you would really join us in our dorkiness... Believe me, this place is magic.
Lagune Torre was really cool, the days were beautiful and the it was a good farewell from Parque Nacional El Chalten.
After like 3 weeks, I found myself walkign away from the East End of town. My back was arched from the weight of my backpack. I too was threading soft steps, in hopes not to upset my newly gained blisters. There were quarter sized without a doubt.
I was on my way to Rancho Grande to have my well deserved luke warm shower when I saw this couple walking up the beginning of the trail.
They stoped me and asked
"Is this the way to Poincenot Camp ?"
Yep, I said,
"Is it about five hours up"
"Just about" I answered.
"That is not too bad"
My answer to that comment was a plain "not really" but I actually thought to myself...I wanna see if he is going to walk this proudly when the mountain is done with him"

Laguna de Los Tres

Laguna de los tres, one of the many day hikes from camp Poincenot, stands for lake of the three. The three makes reference to the three glaciars that feed the lake. You can see all thee when you are on its shores
This is actually the bluest form of blue I have ever seen, be it in water, sky, crayons or what have you.
The glaciar is right there, in front of you, thus it is needless to say it is absolutely impossible to bath in, despite how blue and inviting it might look. Three second of water up to your shins and your knees buckle.
Laguna de las piedras was anotehr lake, also about three hours from the campsite.
The charm of las piedras is its piedras... gigantic bolder you have to overcome in order to get to it. At las piedras, you can easily get to and walk on the actual glaciar. I dont know how safe it really is to walk on a glaciar and seeing how I was utterly alone and the last person I had seen had been 4 hours prior, I figured I should just watch from the distance and stay safe.

Funny thing about men

The funny thing about man is that it is not enough that he has, owns, conquers or witnesses something, he has to brag about it.
It was not enough that I had seen an ice block the size of an 18 wheeler truck drop 900 feet. What got to me the most was that I could turn to someone and say
"Did you see that!!!"
Sure enough, he felt the same way.
I felt somewhat stupid but I guess that is life. One of the good things about traveling is you learn a little bit about yourself, and hopefully you make peace with it.
There was a joke a heard once and I never gave it too much thought, or even really laughed much. However, after this happened, I must confess I found myself appreciating the joke immensely.
It goes something like this:
Guy gets stranded in a deserted island with the most gorgeous model. She dismisses him but eventually they start doing it. After about a month of doing it every possible way, position, hour of the day or day of the week, she realizes he is not into it anymore. She approaches him and asks what is wrong
"What is the matter, is something missing, is there something I can do ?" she asks.
"Well, since you asked, there is one thing you can do" he replies.
He proceeds to instruct her to dress in men's clothes from head to toe and meet him on the other side of the island. Reluctantly, she accepts.
As she is waiting for him on the other side of the island, he walks up to her and says:
"what is up"
"Nothing, what is up with you" She replies
So he looks at her with a big smile on his face.
"Dude... you won't believe who I am f~@king !!!!!!"


The funny thing about men is that, sometimes, it is all about who you can tell it to.
ps: by men, I mean mankind, so ladies, it is about you too

Laguna Sucia

Trekking up the mountain really made me a little grumpy, but it is nothing that a good night of sleep wouldnt cure.
I woke up to a beautiful day of blue blear skies. The Fitzroy mountain was smacked right in front of the camp. Camp Poincenot stands on a hill, inside a forest and well protected from the powerful winds. At the north end of the camp runs a white-pebbled riverbed creek with glaciar water that is barely above freezing temperature. I am talking 35F.
From the camp there are various daily treks you can pursue, they take you to vista points, glaciar lakes, river lakes, you name it...
The first spot I chose to visit was laguna sucia (dirty lake), which is called dirty for I dont know what reason. It is so blue it makes the sky look white in comparison. It is only not as blue as the laguna de los tres, but bluer than any other lake I have ever seen.
There is a humangous glaciar and a waterfall that is about 300 meters high. The sendero (path) up there is not one suggested by the rangers, so not that many people actually go visit it. For a good two hours, I was the only person there, which was awesome.
An Argentine made it there in perfect timing, as a huge piece of ice, about the size of a school bus, began to slide down the glaciar.
The roar of the ice hitting the lake makes thunder sound like a tooth pick hitting your teet. I was awesome that I saw such a huge spectacle of nature and it was good that this guy was there to see it, because I dont think I could have lived without watching such an incredible display of raw power and not have turned to someone and said:
"Did you see that !!!!"

Poincenot

Poincenot is the first campsite one encounters when going up the mountain from Chalten.
It is a free camp and it takes about 5 hours of an uphill battle to get to. I was up for the challenge and went for it with that bold ear to ear smile... which was only good for the first half hour. It wasnt long at all and my mouth was shut quiet for the remainder of the time.
For two hours I followed this sendero (dirt path), hoping they were misinformed about the 5 hours and secretly believing it was only going to be 2 hours... and that the camp was just right there, after that one big tree by that turn....
My secret hopes didnt materialize and instead , what happened was I just began to curse my way up the mountain, as a way to forget about the 40 lbs backpack that was on a mission to make my knees buckle.
I eventually made it to the camp. People from all around were all in awe of the place.
"Ohh, it is so beautiful", said one
"Yeah, it is amazing" said another
"I've never seen anything like it" replied a third person
My reaction was more in the lines of
"Get this mother f@#!~* backpack off of me !!!"

Not quite like New York City

As I have mentioned, I made it to Chalten at twelve o'clock at night. I didnt see a thing , but it was dark so I didnt expect to see much anyways.
It was funny though, when I woke up, to see that there actually wasnt anything to see. The town, if you can call it that, is one dusty strip with what would be a supermarket, one public phone and one restaurant. At the end of the strip thre is a campsite, and at the very beginning there is a tourist information that doubles as a post office and pharmacy... at least they are efficient.
Roaming the streets , or better yet, the one street, are backpackers, trekkers and rock-climbers from all over the world: Switzerland, Italy, Germany, US and Israel, just to name some of the ones I talked to. Every country is represented in the Avenida San Martin, the only street of Chalten.
Every person you see sports a big smile, but its funny how there are two predominatly different smiles that you can tall apart.
Proud and tall, taking bold steps towards the east end o the strip is athe smile of thfe one who is about to go up the mountain. It shows many teeth and clean shaven faces of men or tanned cheeks on women.
Not as proud or as tall, but definitely more enthused, is the smile of those returning from teh mountain. Their back have long arched from teh weight of their backpacks. They thread soft steps, in hopes not to upset their newly formed quarter sized blisters on the soles of their feet. Their reward awaits at the west end of the strip: a lukeworm shower and opportunity to shave and the ability to look at those sporting the other type of smile and say "I wanna see if he is going to walk this proudly when the mountain is done with him !!!!"

Chalten

So I was off to Chalten to see Mount Fitzroy, another one of Argentina's beautiful postcard spots.
The Fitzroy mountain range was name after its discoverer. Mind you that when I say discover, I actually mean its White discoverer, for the Mapuche indians were already pretty aware of the mountain by the time Fitzroy first layed eyes on it. The indians named it Chalten, after which the national park is actually named. The mountain is not the only one, but perhaps the most stunning attraction of the park.
I was booked for a mere three days of camping and I thought it would be enough to check out the entire park... silly me.
I made it the entrance of the park at midnight. I set my tent and waited for whatever the next morning would bring me.