A backpack in Los Glaciares, a lost hiker and a doppelgänger

A blog post by Melissa. Our trip started out very straightforward. We flew down to El Calafate to use as a starting point for some backpacking in Patagonia. We pieced together meals of desiccated cashews that had somehow made the long journey to Patagonia, puffed rice bars (which turned out being delicious) and some weird and bitter dried fig walnut squares (which turned out being the food that we only ate when we were desperate). We found cans of tuna as well, and had an argument in the store about whether to buy the cheapest can or the more pricey can that looked ten times better and claimed to be dolphin safe (you be the judge of who was arguing for price and who argued for quality). Like I said, this was all very standard. But our journey into Parque Nacional Los Glaciares proved to have a series of pleasant surprises and strange events. 

 

When we arrived in El Chalten, the gateway to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, our hostel host told us that we needed to get on the trail immediately and come back to the hostel the next day because there was a big storm rolling in. He said this as his heavy metal music videos were playing in the background, but he seemed to really know what he was talking about when it came to weather. We trusted him. Any guy who let's you cancel your reservation to get better weather camping has got to be trustworthy. We proceeded to frantically sort our things and pack up, including the compromise of one can cheap tuna and one can dolphin safe tuna "steak." Amazingly, we got out on the trail in an hour and a half. 

 

For the rest of our hike we were constantly asking about weather and just missing all the major wind and rain storms at each site we visited. We had an amazingly clear view of Fitz Roy, the star of the show in the park. Each turn we took looked like a fantasy land with grasses of all colors and big open plains laced with black and white granite cliffs. We even saw three condors soaring high above it all. 

Mt. Fitz Roy

The next day, as we walked out, Fitz Roy was covered in clouds and big winds rolled in with daunting clouds. The trees were literally bending back and forth and cracking in the strong winds as we hiked down the trail as fast as we could. We arrived back in El Chalten to find our friendly rocker host again, listening to Guns-n-Roses. He had kindly stored our things and had a room waiting for us.

That night, we met a Korean man who had travelled extensively to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. He did this because ever since he was a child he had been obsessed with condors and has wanted to see one in the wild. In all his travels, he still hadn't seen his beloved condors. It was so hard to believe the rarity of seeing even one since we had seen three during our hike and didn't even think anything of it. We felt extremely lucky. We also felt lucky that we overnighted the storm in the hostel. It was a bad one. The wind was whipping on the windows and splashing sheets of rain on the side of the house, while we were cozy in our dorm room.

The next day, we headed out on a three day trek to Cerro Torre. We had very clear (and cold) weather. We saw numerous rainbows and a beach of ice cubes on a lakeshore. We ran into practically everyone we met going to Fitz Roy a couple days earlier who regaled us with stories of how they survived the tempest. We again felt so thankful for all these wonderful experiences. 

 

Cerro Torre and its surroundings

On our final day, we encountered a woman who had gotten lost and was miles away from the trail she wanted to be on. We tried to point her in the right direction, but she refused to leave our sides. From her accent I think she was Chilean, but we never really found out, she wasn't interested much in talking. She proceeded to walk at a lightening pace and insist that we keep up with her because she didn't want to be alone. Adam and I had heavy packs and we were fatigued from multiple long days of  hiking. She began to get impatient with us, beating her walking stick on the ground. She told use that she had a tour bus to catch. Finally she gave up and walked ahead when we again explained the path she needed to take. We asked other people on the trail if they had seen her and they assured us they had and that she was heading in the right direction.

Then just as we thought the series of strange events was ending, we encountered a Doppelgänger of my friend Curran on our bus ride to our next destination, Puerto Natales, Chile. When I say doppelgänger, I mean I thought this guy was him. I was so totally caught off guard that after talking with him for a bit (he was from Germany and had never heard of Curran), I asked him where he was going although we were all on a bus headed to the same destination. I'm sure I made a great first impression, first ogling at him, then taking his picture so Curran could see his doppelgänger, then asking him where he was headed when we were on the same bus. Brilliant.

All in all, we loved our time in Los Glaciares, especially the series of strange events. We were lucky with the amazing views, our health and safety, the weather, but the other people that we met gave the trip a Twilight Zone twist. What will the Chilean side of Patagonia hold? Stay tuned.