It's at Fitz Roy kinda morning (17km, 36 miles total hike) 12/30
Andy woke me up at 4. I was kinda hoping he would say it was too cloudy or rainy to do the am hike but I knew he wouldn't say that. I slept well once I away a able to get past the foot pain. I thought the wind would keep me awake but my head was buried in the sleeping bag. I didn't realize how much sound the down blocks, that's why we missed my alarm some mornings. We started the hike by 4:30 in the dark. The path up the mountain was steep w a lot of loose rocks and big rocks. I think we were well conditioned by now because we blew past the other hikers on the mountain. I was freezing when we started, by the top I had everything off except my thermal since I get so hot. We hit the top in 45min. The wind was blowing hard hiking up along w the snow, but it was very calm at the top. We saw the sun rising off in the distance showing intense reds in th sky.
Reaching Lago de Los Tres was much easier than TDP since we didn't have to boulder (6km RT). There was only 8 or so of us on the top. As the sun rose, the clouds turned pink and then the mountain. We couldn't see the top of Fitz Roy but the views of the other mountains and down the valley were clear. Andy got some great pics w his fully charged camera. We headed down after 30min when the sun went back into the clouds. It was challenging hiking down since some of the rocks were so high. On the way down we passed a couple that we passed going up. Too bad they missed the sunrise.
We packed our stuff and headed back down the mountain for our 1 bus back to El Chatén. The sky was clear which brought a chill to the air and caused it to hail this morning. We hiked 10km down the mountain, it was a long and continuous decent for 2 hours (11km) . Along the way we had great views of Fitz Roy and the valley. We spotted another eagle that was just chillin in the path. Again this one got so close, Andy was able to take amazing pics of its blue beak and launch into flight.
We hit El Chatén at 11 and needed food. Not much was open but we managed to find a pizzeria. We split a pizza and had two large beers and soda water w real blueberry juice. The beer hit me hard and I was so relaxed. We made our way to the bus stop and headed back to Calafaté where I slept for a good 2 hours along the way.
We went back to Hospedaje Laurto because the hostess said we could camp there since they didn't have any room. The shower felt amazing, things you take for granted after 3 days of hiking. We walked to La Tablita to see if they could fit us in outer dinner reservations since it's the famous restaurant. No luck.
We decided to go back to La Zaina, the same restaurant we hit up before we left. We were the first ones there at 6:30 which turned out to be our luck because they weren't letting people in because the rest of the tables were reserved. It's funny they wouldn't let anyone use the tables because the reservations for most tables weren't until 9. We were ready to do dinner right. We started w a Pinot from Patagonia and lamb pâté. Andy also ordered mushrooms w bacon as another app but I'm glad it didn't come because the pâté was huge. Next we ordered another bottle of wine- we went w a Malbec from Mendoza because there were so many Malbecs to whose from, I figured that was the way to go, and it was. It went perfectly w Andy's ribeye and my stewed lamb. The lamb wasn't as good as the first night but it was still delicious.
We walked around for a bit, I wanted to get some jewelry. We headed for the "artesian market", an open air market. Andy tried on some lamb wool hats but none were big enough for his head. Then he found a great booth from a couple who makes metal jewelry, Victoria and Pedro. I got a bracelet and some earrings, I would have loved to get more.
Back at the hostel w our cookies and we rested for the night. It's amazing how drinking two bottles of wine will affect you after not drinking much for the last couple weeks. Back into the tent for one last night.