Day 4 was another beautiful day, almost warm, still, dry, high clouds. We hoisted our now heavier packs--we'd stored our tenting gear in the valley (at the Patagonia store (!)) prior to the Days 1-2 ascent--and began the 6 or so mile hike to Camping Los Cuernos, our next night's stop. Los Cuernos are The Horns, similar to if far less impressive than the Torres. The mountains in the area are noted for their two-tone/layer-cake appearance.
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A rock at our campsite in Los Torres displays the two-tone
appearance; black and tan, like the stout |
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The Patagonian wind is hard on trail signage |
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Ugly/uninteresting mountain; we spent much of the day passing
it on the right |
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Also passing an assortment of lakes on the left |
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Also being passed by gauchos |
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Distant mountains |
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Not much shrubbery, few flowers on the open ground |
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Mr. Moth does his thing |
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More conglomerate |
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Much of the signage is about toilet paper, a major fire hazard... |
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More mountains, more lakes |
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Vicki on what was truly an ersatz suspension bridge; capacity: 1;
note remnants of former bridge in background |
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"Let's see...the post-hole was over there, so the sign probably
faced this way, and,wait, here is the sliver about which way
to Los Cuernos..." |
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First sight of the tan and black Cuernos |
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And first sight of the Cerro Paine Grande, highest in the park
at just under 3,000m |
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Flora |
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Cerro Paine Grande dominated for both Days 4 and 5; even
though it's a small mountain, it reminded us of Mt. Blanc, from
Chamonix |
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In the distance, the Southern Patagonia Icefield, largest outside
of Arctic and Antarctic regions, from which the big glaciers,
including Perito Moreno, in Argentina, emanate |
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Gentle reminder |
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Nice water feature |
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Notch between Cuernos |
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Impressive folding in mountain across the lake |
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Rickety bridge after terrible trail down to Los Cuernos |
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The torrent below; at this point, the camera went weird on me,
rendering everything in faded Ektachrome mode; perhaps I can
fix it later |
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Anyhow, at the Los Cuernos campground (you must have
reservations!), you get to rent/pitch your tent on these cute
wooden platforms (same at Chileno); cost: $180; yes, $180
US dollars; per night, dos personnes |
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But wait, there's more: included was the worst purchased food
we have ever eaten; dinner consisted of an incredibly thin,
tasteless vegetable soup, followed by the above--a cow-patty-
sized glop of mashed potatoes into which had been stirred
perhaps a table-spoon of ground beef, topped by two sauteed
onion slices; all this followed by a few spoonfuls of caramel
pudding glop; breakfast the next morning and the boxed trail
lunch were of similar quality: $180 |
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Despite the black and tan all around (memories of Dublin!) I
actually went dry this evening; prices for drinks, even a beer,
were about the worst price gouging yet; as our dinner
companions from Netherlands remarked, the owners of the
concession, FantasticoSur, must be getting very rich |
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Maybe the camera knew something... |
1 comment:
These photos are straight out of the 70s. Hope you can fix the camera! But the blues of those mountain lakes (from earlier photos) are marvelous!
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