Patagonia

Well since Iguazu in the last post, we have been busy, a highlight is 3 very busy days in El Chalten.

We got an afternoon bus there from El Calafate and arrived at about 5pm. The lady in our hostel said that as the weather was so good we should do the 6 hour (roundtrip) walk up to the Cerro Torre lake and viewpoint. She said that it was so unusual to be able to see the whole mountain as it's normally covered in cloud. So we set off and made it to the lake by about 8pm. The views were breathtaking and we spend about 45 mins just staring at the mountain. It was a deep blue lake stretching out before us, scatted with icebergs, with a sweeping glacier behind and the Torre towering behind. We felt totally silent and still in our own piece of paridice. However, we soon realised it was going to be dark by the time we got back so we jogged a bit on the way back, but after half an hour of jogging we were in pitch black...going down the mountain on an unmarked trail...luckily the woman at the hostel told us to take a torch, so it was actually quite fun! We went out for supper and it was the most enjoyable food ever as we were so tired!!!

The next day we went on a horse ride along the river...I have never seen james so happy...we both had so much fun. James had the mummy horse so he had a faul running along next to me the whole time! We had a funny moment where we all stopped and got off, and the guide asked if anyone needed the loo. So Jess runs off excited into the bushes to wee. When she returned, the guide showed us round a bend where there's a nice toilet standing there, hehe!

The next day we trekked up to the Fitz Roy mountain (Lago de los tres). Was a 10 hour trek round trip, but well worth it!!! We´ve got some amazing photos to upload later! Went right up into the mountains where there were three bright blue lakes, waterfalls, glaciers and again the mountains towering behind.

We're now heading to Puerto Natales tomorrow to get ready for the Torres, more amazing Patagonian scenery.

Hope everything is fine and dandy back home.

Ciao chicas,

Jessica and James

p.s. When we were at Perito Moreno Glacier, we went up to the Café and James saw a load of guys looking out over the balcony into the woods, like 25 people. So he wondered what they were all looking at and squeezed to the front to look....only to realise that there wasn't a rare animal standing in the woods, but he was now standing, and had pushed my way, to the front of a praying session!!!! HA!!