Patagonia part II

So I guess I should tell a little bit about those photos I posted. Been in Patagonia for 3 weeks now and I LOVE it! I seriously want to live here! Spent a week backpacking in Torres del Paine NP in Chile (where those pics are from), then another week hiking around El Chalten. That´s where Cerro Torre and Cerro FitzRoy are... pictures hopefully to come soon! The craziest, scariest, and most beautiful mountains I´ve ever seen! It´s even more impressive, because the Patagonian landscape is really flat and boring and kind of depressing to be honest, and then there is this range of insane peaks!

Right now I´m in Bariloche, in the Argentinian Lake District. This place is pretty touristy so I decided to get out and do a few more days of backpacking. The trail I chose ended up being 1500m climbing up loose skree slope, 1500m sliding down loose skree slope, 1500m climbing back up... etc. So, I now have 2 enormous water blisters on the bottoms of both of my big toes, which makes me walk kind of like I imagine penguins walk.

Last night where I camped ended up being the stomping grounds for some pack horses. I could hear them all night and I was a little afraid they were going to trip and fall on my tent and kill me. Luckily they did not. In the morning there were tons of hoof prints everywhere! To reward myself for some hard days of hiking, I just went out and had a Lomito, a sandwich that included: steak, eggs, cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato, mayonaise, and bacon! They sure do know how to eat down here!

Then I walked around town a bit, everyone and their dog is out on the street for Good Friday. The highlight was a chainsaw wood carving show, apparently this is related to Easter? Jesus was a carpenter? Not sure of the connection there. One guy was carving a shepherd, nice and Easter-ish. I didn´t really get the platypus the other guy was making though. Well, it´s art.

Tommorow I´m off to Santiago Chile to meet up with my two awesome Vancouver girls, Chris and Lacey, for my last 2 weeks. Sure to be good times ahead!

Chao!
Kate