The Park, Day One

On day one Jorg and I boarded the bus directly outside my hostal, erratic rock. It would take us about 2 hours to get there. Next, we hopped on the Catamaran, which took us across Lago Pehue, to the base of Valle Frances.

Before we even got started we stopped at a bench to eat lunch. The part I like most about being out here, I said to Jorg as we crammed cheese sandwiches into our mouths, is the quiet. He nodded, we threw our apple cores into the shrub, and started on the trail, 3 hours from Campo Italiano, where we´d spend our first night.

When we started hiking I felt like shit, with 45 minutes of sleep and a hangover, carrying a 50 pound backpack. Three hours felt like 9, and by the time we got to camp I was dreading the 6 hour hike up Valle Frances to the viewpoint. We pitched the tent and started our hike - atleast we were able to do it packless. Then we heard a SMACK - BANG - BOOM! when we looked up it was too late - a piece of the glacier had fallen, making an incredible explosion-like sound. The hike up Valle Frances was accompanied by glacier sounds - like a huge, old ship, shifting it´s weight on top of waves - or the way an old house sounds, as you walk on its ancient wooden floors - deep, long, creaks.

At the top of Valle Frances we took a break for cheese crackers. But before long we were too cold - the notorious patagonian winds had arrived. Besides, with the fog that had settled, we couldn´t see much anyway.

When we got back to camp we boiled water, wondering why it took nearly an hour to get even slightly warm. We settled for luke and ate our crunchy, cold pasta. Chocolate for dessert would become a tradition, as would crawling into the tent and falling asleep immediatley after. And this brings us to the end of day one.

side note about doing a trek with a german you just met - I could barely pronounce Jorg´s name and we had already gone grocery shopping together, and were now sleeping in the same bed! Jorg, a 25 year old rugby player studying medicine ot become a surgeon, wasn´t much of a talker. His dark curls, green eyes, and tan skin had gotten to his brain I believe, and he didn´t felt the need to make an effort to get to know me, thinking I would be dying to get to know him. This made for an interesting 5 days of trekking - very little talking, very fast walking...