Trekking, camping and interesting food in Fitzroy
Felt rather tired after our marathon hike yesterday - fortunately only had to get up in time to check out at 10am, so had luxury of staying in bed til 8am!! We decided to change our itinerary and go back to El Calafate a day early, with the hope of seeing the Upsala Glacier, so we then spent a very non-productive hour or so in the local internet shop/travel agent trying to find a hostel for the extra night, plus also attempting to book our Glacier cruise in advance. The chap in there was very slow and inefficient, so eventually we gave up and went back to Condor de Los Andes, where Noelia was much more helpful and started calling round to find us a place. Whilst she did that, we went off to the local chocolateria for a well-earned mocha and alfador. It was soooo good - i wanted to bring the whole place back with me to New York!
So by time got back to hostel, everything was all sorted out for hostel, except no-one would take an advance reservation for the glacier cruise (a tad crazy) so still no guarantee we were going to be able to do that. We´ll see when we get to El Calafate. Then off to camping rental shop to hire our tent and sleeping mat (plus trekking poles for me) and finally set off around 2pm after much faffing about!!
Unfortunately weather was much crappier than day before (realised just how lucky we´d been on our ice trek!) - colder and windier with a bit of rain (and snow later!) thrown in for good measure. We took it really easy for the 2.5hr hike up to Camp Poincenot - Sam´s knees were still buggered plus the general exhaustion from the day before meant we were both a bit low on energy. The route wasnt too bad, although it was a steady uphill climb for the first hour, although the path was relatively flat and even, which made it much more manageable. Needless to say, i stil managed to trip and stub my toes on average once every 7 mins. Think must be getting fitter cos even though backpack was heavier with all our stuff in, felt a lot easier to carry. Either that or my body has moulded to the shape of my backpack!
Saw a very cool, ENORMOUS Magellanic woodpecker on way up, as we walked through the woods. Was really going for it and making a complete racket - the poor tree didnt stand a chance and chunks of bark were flying everywhere!
Took us an hour to get to the first marked scenic lookout at Mirador Laguna Capri, then another 1.5hrs to get to the campsite. It was situated in a grove of trees, on a bluff just up from the river which offered some degree of shelter from the biting Patagonian wind. We quickly set up camp (2man tent with a porch!) and rigged up a rathy nifty Camelbak irrigation system in the nearest tree. Saw a couple of enormous eagle-type birds who were making a very tidy living scavenging off scraps of food they´d picked out of peoples´ rubbish bags. Alas Mount Fitzroy was STILL in cloud, so we crossed our fingers and hoped it would clear up before our trek in the morning.
Felt rather tired after our marathon hike yesterday - fortunately only had to get up in time to check out at 10am, so had luxury of staying in bed til 8am!! We decided to change our itinerary and go back to El Calafate a day early, with the hope of seeing the Upsala Glacier, so we then spent a very non-productive hour or so in the local internet shop/travel agent trying to find a hostel for the extra night, plus also attempting to book our Glacier cruise in advance. The chap in there was very slow and inefficient, so eventually we gave up and went back to Condor de Los Andes, where Noelia was much more helpful and started calling round to find us a place. Whilst she did that, we went off to the local chocolateria for a well-earned mocha and alfador. It was soooo good - i wanted to bring the whole place back with me to New York!
So by time got back to hostel, everything was all sorted out for hostel, except no-one would take an advance reservation for the glacier cruise (a tad crazy) so still no guarantee we were going to be able to do that. We´ll see when we get to El Calafate. Then off to camping rental shop to hire our tent and sleeping mat (plus trekking poles for me) and finally set off around 2pm after much faffing about!!
Unfortunately weather was much crappier than day before (realised just how lucky we´d been on our ice trek!) - colder and windier with a bit of rain (and snow later!) thrown in for good measure. We took it really easy for the 2.5hr hike up to Camp Poincenot - Sam´s knees were still buggered plus the general exhaustion from the day before meant we were both a bit low on energy. The route wasnt too bad, although it was a steady uphill climb for the first hour, although the path was relatively flat and even, which made it much more manageable. Needless to say, i stil managed to trip and stub my toes on average once every 7 mins. Think must be getting fitter cos even though backpack was heavier with all our stuff in, felt a lot easier to carry. Either that or my body has moulded to the shape of my backpack!
Saw a very cool, ENORMOUS Magellanic woodpecker on way up, as we walked through the woods. Was really going for it and making a complete racket - the poor tree didnt stand a chance and chunks of bark were flying everywhere!
Took us an hour to get to the first marked scenic lookout at Mirador Laguna Capri, then another 1.5hrs to get to the campsite. It was situated in a grove of trees, on a bluff just up from the river which offered some degree of shelter from the biting Patagonian wind. We quickly set up camp (2man tent with a porch!) and rigged up a rathy nifty Camelbak irrigation system in the nearest tree. Saw a couple of enormous eagle-type birds who were making a very tidy living scavenging off scraps of food they´d picked out of peoples´ rubbish bags. Alas Mount Fitzroy was STILL in cloud, so we crossed our fingers and hoped it would clear up before our trek in the morning.
Supper-time and, i think, our most...err... interesting flavour combo yet. Not sure what we were thinking when we picked up bolognese sauce for our spaghetti plus then a couple of tins of tuna.
Mixing it all together it completely looked like cat food - as my Spanish is non-existent, i may well have been in the petfood aisle without realising it, but there weren´t any pictures of cats on the tins of tuna, so i think we were probably OK. At least it was hot, though - by this stage it was starting to get rather cold, so Sam did the washing up, we tidied our stuff away and got ready to retire into the tents for the evening. Our washroom facilities at the campsite consisted solely of an absolutely MINGING latrine - i guess all part of the experience, but it was so grim that if i´dve dropped my passport in there, i would rather go queue for days at the embssy to get a replacement than try and retrieve it! Continuing my clumsy theme, I´d actually tripped over a piece of wood (in beautiful slow-motion!) on the way to the latrine and landed full force onto my right knee, grazing it badly. Well done, me. I think i´d probably trip over a grain of sand on a beach.Managed to make it back to tent without further incident, did a couple of crosswords then hunkered down in sleeping bag to go to sleep.
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