Once everyone was up we headed to the Ocampo. We met Nephew's coworker Enigo? Indigo? (sp?) - not sure if his father makes swords or not? We shared mate - a tea like beverage common in Patagonia, but it comes with rules. Very specific rules. Thankfully, the consequences for not following them were nil. We were among friends.
It was a beautiful, if just a tad cool morning and we headed out on a hike. The hike ranged through lots of terrain - from open scrubby areas to wet boggy areas to black timber to stone scree - and just about everything in between. We were gaining elevation quickly which was a lot of work and it was getting warmer. Throughout the day the coat was on/off/on/off...
And the flies, huge horse flies were buzzing around and biting something fierce. The only relief was the wind as it fought the tyranny of those evil flies. Mostly, the flies won, although they were easy to kill. They actually got worse in the warmer weather on the way down in the afternoon.
We continued to hike throughout the morning, gaining elevation. It seemed every time a peak was in view, yet another peak a little higher was soon to show. No matter how much elevation is gained, there was always more up.
I created some Sasquatch rocks, and asked Abi if Patagonia has any mythical beasts. She told of a few including a Trauco which is a troll-like beast that lives on an island and can impregnate young girls. More likely, it is used as a convenient excuse for young girls to tell their mothers when...
And Patagonia has the chupacabra of course! And that might explain this picture...
Towards the end of the morning there was a long side-hilling section in dark timber. The scenery was pretty and the Old Man's Beard made me smile. But it was also painful and an ankle-roll would not have been impossible.
After this long side-hill section, we broke out into a green gentle valley. After the woods, the view was hard to comprehend; it was transformational.
We hiked up to a lake formed by the Chirifo Glacier. It was between cloudy and silty from all the glacial run-off. It was still really pretty.
We had lunch "on the rocks" - although there was no alcohol. We actually ate lunch in a rough glacier/boulder area. It worked, but wasn't too comfortable and perhaps not totally hygienic. So it goes.
After lunch we headed towards another high elevation glacial lake from the Chirifo Glacier. This brought us across an area with quite a bit of snow. Coming from Ohio, it doesn't sound that amazing to say I walked across several feet of snow in December with Nephew. But this is South America, and I walked across snow in the middle of summer.
The second glacial lake was totally different than the first. It was almost completely clear and had rivulets of water running down across some scree, forming a river a little lower in elevation. We ate some pumpkin spice treats Big Sis brought down - how many people can say that they had a feast of pumpkin spice at the shore of a high elevation Patagonian Lake? At least five...
I enjoyed looking at all the rocks on this hike. There were rocks of just about every make-up and texture. And every now and then a totally different rock appeared, dropped by some ancient glacier from who knows where.
We started to head down after this. The views continued to be amazing but they were not the same with the sun higher in the sky. The blues of the lower elevation lake were definitely more intense.
The side-hilling wasn't too bad going back, but it still wasn't my favorite part. While the trip up is much more work, the trip down is almost harder both because I'm tired and because constantly bracing on the steep parts was painful.
When I was looking at what I was going to bring to Patagonia, footwear was something I needed to figure out. Waterproof shoes are great ... until they get wet. Then they suck and take forever to dry. My solution was to use quick-drying mesh hiking shoes and waterproof breathable socks. This hike convinced me that this works - and works well. On the way back I had a foot go into a pretty serious bog. I washed it off a short time later in a glacial stream. It was a bit squishy for less than five minutes at which time I couldn't even tell anything was wet. And regardless of the temperature, I my feet stayed quite comfortable.
It was getting hotter as the day went on and I was getting more tired. It was still fun and very pretty. On the way down we did see a huge print from a puma - nephew commented that it might explain where the chickens are going.
By the time we got back to the Ocampo, it looked like Xanadu - or at least the level ground did.
We packed up and headed back to the cabana for dinner. Abi and Nephew made really tasty salmon with a salad followed by brownies (as an ad-hoc belated celebration for Abi's birthday).
We had a visitor that night who also shared in some salmon skin. This was a super well-behaved dog that was also friendly and leaned against me while I worked on the computer. I do miss my dogs at home.
This was the first real day of the adventure and it definitely didn't disappoint. There is still much to see and do.
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