Patagonia - Day #8 - Saturday, January 4th
Coming to you live aboard a 5-hr bus ride heading to El Calafate, Argentina on Sunday, January 5th. We left EcoCamp and Chile behind this morning at 6:15am and have a super-size travel day today - which will bring us to our new destination (Mt Fitz Roy) for the next 5 days. I’m only writing the blog for Sat, Jan 4th now - because yesterday was just too good and packed to fit it in
Saturday (Jan 4th) was effectively a rest day from hiking - but still action-packed. After grabbing some breakfast - we headed out for a driving tour around the Patagonian mountains. We saw a bunch of guanaco (deer-like animals resembling llamas), a swan, and a bunch of bird species. We were on the lookout for pumas (mountain lions), as Patagonia is home to one of the highest density of pumas in the world. Unfortunately - we didn’t see any - but had fun trying.
We stopped for a long picnic lunch overlooking this amazing lake with the mountains in the backdrop. The guides had a spread of meats, cheeses, crackers, and wine. We spent some time skipping rocks across the lake before continuing our tour.
We hit a few more sites- including a great waterfall - before heading back to EcoCamp. We got into camp about 4:30pm and needed to get things packed for today’s departure. 4:30 to 7pm was filled with chores (packing, shower, buying park pass for upcoming excursion, blog upload, etc)
We met for dinner/drinks/briefing at 7pm. The last night of a group tour is always bittersweet. This group was especially awesome - we all exchanged contact information and shared photos. Doug and Michael are going to the same place as Greg and I - so we’ll be with them the next few days. Walter and Ellen hope to come up to Colorado from Albuquerque to hike some 14ers with me. Mia/Simon offered a place to stay in Australia and Brendan/Lauren offered a place in Singapore. This was one of my favorite groups of any of my adventurers
We had a great dynamic with the group. We danced, drank, and told stories until after midnight before saying our goodbyes. I can’t be for certain - but I may have sung a rendition of Country Roads by John Denver - while people were filming me at one point of the night. We were all having a good time - that’s for certain.
Excursion #1 is in the books!! This will be hard to beat. On to the next chapter - and a mountain called Fitz Roy in Argentina.
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