Dia Dos del W

Chrissie and I look pretty fresh here as we begin our second day of the W. I know I was secretly praying to los dios de trekking that the next 11 kilometers were nothing like yesterday...and I know my hips and knees were also whispering small prayers.

This is a short post because it was a short and lovely hike. No straight up, no torrents of wind (a guy told us that Patagonia is the nacimiento del viento -- the birthplace of wind), and we enjoyed a long rest by a quiet lake and we drank in some wonderful vistas of the Los Cuernos montanas.


As we slowly made our way to our next stay at Refugio Los Cuernos where we had booked the cabanas rather than dorm it up with the youngin's, I began day dreaming about the massage I might receive upon arrival.

The massage never materialized, but truthfully what followed after we arrived in the late afternoon was better than any massage--refuge from the storm. No more than 15 minutes after we pulled off our boots and braved the showers, did the white caps fill the lake and the rain pounded the hills. That night at the refugio there were people begging to get in and out of the rain. It was an incredible storm. Chrissie does a nice reenactment for us below.

Oh, and now I remember one of the more remarkable people we met along the trail. He was a brasilian who was probably in his early 30s and as we passed him on the trail he challenged me to try on his pack. As I slipped it on my legs buckled and shook. He said it weighed more than his two kids. He also admitted he was loco. We agreed. We saw him later that night at the refugio, soaking wet, but happy to be in shelter. In the middle of the night as Chrissie magically slept (must be the earplugs) I was reminded of how lucky we were when it felt like our little cabana was going to go Dorothy on us and blow away to the land of Oz. I was incredibly happy to be without pack and not in a soaking wet tent about to be blown off the mountain! Ah to be a princess....that cabana was not the Ritz but it cost just about the same and it was worth it!