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Todavia en la PATAGONIA. CHile o Argentina?
After our 5 day trek around the W circuit in Torres Del Paine, I was ready to take it easy for a while. On the last day..I opted to hitch hike with some guys from England back to Puerto Natales and Kat decided to stay to do the whole torres del paine circuit. The 3 hr ride back to the City was pretty uneventul execot for the part that the brits liked my sarcastic humor. I did not know i had one but they were amused. Which is not a bad thing, i guess.
Ah. Puerto Natales. PLace where I rested, took a much needed shower, come on I hadnt showered in 5 days. That´s something you dont do when u go back country backpacking. Hmm, maybe i just like being dirty. MAuricio, at the hostal asked for Kat. ¨Se quedo en Torres para terminar el Circuito¨, i told him. ¨Te puesto que llegara mañana, el tiempo va empiorar alla, vas a ver¨. Hmm. ok, Ill just rest and wait for my buddy to arrive. Just LIke how Mauricio predicted..Kat arrived the next day. drenched in rain from head to
toe, color blue. I dunno about these Magallane people, seem to be fortune tellers : ) Before Kat spoke, I ordered her to take a shower. It took her 5 min to obey, she was full of stories. It turned out that the min i left torres, the weather turned ugly and fast. Clouds engulfed the skies and rain fell hard.
The next few days, we rested and met up with my friend Pierro. Ate tons of Pizza. Three days later, we got restless and bought the first bus ride out to El Calafate, Argentina. The night before it had SNOWED by the tins. Puerto Natlaes was covered in white shets that looked like cream cheese icing (hmm, cream cheese, yum!). We prayed that the rodes at the border would be clear and open. And hour and half after departure our bus driver haluted the bus to put on SNOW CHAINS. The roads were crazy! But we managed to get to the border slowly. At the border, they gave us the NO GO sign. We waited, waited. · hrs waiting we had to collectively take a decision. Either go back with the us to Puerto Natlaes or go
to some city to take the night bus to El calafate. Puerto Natlates was the choice. Not being able to turn the bus back around the bus driver decided to go in reverse. That proved to be a disaster. So he then decided to some how Austin Power his way out of the lil tiney asphalt area. 20 min trying to get the bus out, the border stopped us. We were given the OK sign to cross the border...snow plows had apperantly claered the path by then. YES! A few min later we were getting our passports stamped.
All went well. Followed several backpackers from our bus to their hostel, which proved to be the best decision. We met so many cool people. Partied every night and hiked every dya like crazy! Come on, we play hard but work hard, too!
The next morning, with our 8 person rented van, we all tried to get into into the PERITO MORENO Glacier Park wo paying. But KAt and I had woken up late and caused us to have to pay the entrance fee. Good thing was that our driver, German, was Argentian and managed to lie his
way in saying that all passengers were Argentinian. Score! It meant we payed 10 pesos les : ) Being that it was soo early in the morning, there was still sleet and snow. The stupid mini van did not have Snao chains, so we swerved and swereved our way up. There were lots of SCARRY moments. I really thought we were going to have to be rescued from the bottom of some cliff. SEveral times, the guys had to get out and push the damn thing! Whew...that disaster was soon over. Lil did i know what was soon going to insew.
With several ADVENTUROUS personalities in the group. Somehow, someone decided to go OFF THE well marked, well, steel bridged path. Down, we went..down the mountain, unclear...BUSHWACKING our way down to the GLACIER itself. The whole time i kept thinking, ¨What are we doing, this 30 yr cant handle this much adventure¨...we kept thrudging thru bushes, broken branches, fallen trees and whala. There it was. In all its Glory, the Glacier. Famous for its breaking off pieces. ¨WFT, we are going to get killed¨, i thought, but noone had any of me and payed no attention to my
worries. So i followed. As Stupid is as stupid does. Great!
Kat took out her lil camp stove and proceeded to make coffee. Coffee by the glacier sounded like a grand idea. No? I suppose. ök, lets go back¨....¨no, lets see what is on the other side¨...we hiked and went over some boulders, rocks. Hmm....oh dear....the got to a mini glacier and though it would be a great idea to get up on it. Dont ask me how they got up there. It looked really scarry and dangerous, so this old lady stayed behind while i watched them all frolick and play and slide and have a blast. I waved and sat nd starred and contemplated like a good lil ol lady. FInally, they had enough, came back down and decide they had their fill.
Up up we went back to the safe path!
Can you take apicture., i asked some guys at the famous look out. ¨Wait, are you the ones pplaying where u werent supposed to play¨... I played stupid. ¨Huh, no, of course not, who would do such stupid things? Thats dangerous¨...¨Who are you here with¨...I played stupid again and walked
off and pretended not to be part of ¨My GRoup¨...blended in wiuth the other tourists, took off my gaiters, took off my Marron rain jacket and tried to blend blend blend! WEnt up to the van and tried not to walk with MY GROUP. Agh. I WAS SAFE. Ugh. Dammn ADVENTURES.
BUt that was not all. WE safely got out of the park, unscathed but we then decided to take the mini van for a stroll around a far away Lake. There was mud everywhere on the dirt path and we sawyed back and forth and skidded. Hmm. No bueno. WE got to the lake. Played. Got back on the mini van. Sawying, Skidding on we went. Rrrrrrrum. ER. Engine off. WE WERE STUCK.
All got out to push. Boards were put under the tires, anything under the tires for some traction. NOTHING WORKED!
Kat, took out her camp stive and proceeded to make some coffee. I guess coffee is always good in dyre predicaments.
15 min later a 4x4 pulled up. A cute looking Gaucho came to our rescue. Min later. WE were OUT.
SAfe! But were we?
Back in town, we delivered the min van. One of the green kids in our group spoke up and told our dealer we had EXTRA miles on the mIni Van and that we had gone to the lake. ¨You did what!?¨, the dealer stormed off slamming the door behind him. Returning with a lil mag lite, he screamed ¨I TOLÑD YOU NOT TO GO TO THE LAKE, NOW LOOK AT HOW THE VAN IS; ALL COVERED IN MUD; DO U KNOW HOW MUCH THAT COSTS TO GET THAT CLEANED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¨....we stayed quit. German, our Argentinian guy, came to the rescue and blabbered some ARgentinian jargun, yelled and waved his hands in the air.. Before i knew it a revolution had just started. Min later we were out. Few pesos short but we were finally out and DONE WITH THE DAY!
Whew! This lil lady needed a rest!
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