We wake up to a great breakfast!
Tamara has made fresh biscuits and we have butter, local honey, and rose hips jelly from the rose bushes that have taken over the area (the roses are considered a nasty weed here). We also have home-made yogurt and fruit from the garden. There are several cereals and oatmeal.
We are fortified for the morning!
I save a place next to me for Howard at breakfast but he is occupied with recharging the camera equipment. And before I know it Scott has settled in Howard’s chair. Oh, yuck! That man eats like a pig and maintains a constant monologue of ridiculous factoids. Today we learn that San Bernardino county is the largest county in the US. Who cares?! And how do we know he’s not making this up?!
We experience Mate tea. The tea is made in a special cup with a metal straw of sorts. You steep lots of herb with a little boiling water and replenish the water as you drink it. The cup of tea is shared by passing the cup from one person to another. Kind of like…you know…
We spend the rainy morning photographing in the Valle Exploradores. Our destination is Cerro San Valentin, the second highest Chilean Andes peak and the highest peak in Patagonia. We are lucky! The clouds clear from the mountaintop and we get good pictures. We hear an incredible sound and we see an avalanche high up on the mountain!
We watch for a long while for it to be finally over.
In the 1940s immigrants to Patagonia burned the forests to clear pasture land. So many fires were set that the fire got out of hand and burned for 10 years. As a result many areas are devoid of trees or the forests are secondary growth. We do see what appear to be 1st growth trees (trees with large diameter trunks) on our drive. As we pass the stream beds there are pink sand beaches on ice blue glacier streams.
We next go to Tamara and Pancho’s retreat in the temperate rain forest. They have cut and maintained a beautiful path through this Nothofagus forest. There are incredible fungi. One is particularly unusual–it’s pink in color and free-form in shape.
There are lots of toad stools and slime molds.
The path starts to gain elevation and then we are boulder hopping. Finally after a strenuous last 1/2 mile we reach the glacier viewing platform. It’s pretty incredible.
There is the ice blue glacier ahead of us with mountains in the background. You can see the glacier moraines (the edges of glacier) when it was much larger. But it starts to rain and the most dramatic view of the mountains is obscured by clouds. The photographers try to stick it out until the clouds clear. Surprisingly Scott is the first to give up. About 3 minutes after he leaves (time enough for Scott to be a good way down the boulders) Ben yells “Wow! Look at that!” We got a good laugh from that.
We have happy hour with wine we purchased at the lodge. It’s a nice Chilean red but not worth $50. But the $50 was worth the time relaxing together.
Dinner tonight is conger eel–a strange seafood to the others but we’ve had it in France. There are a few “chickens” who order salmon but everyone who orders the eel likes it.
We sleep a 2nd night at El Puesto and we are looking forward to that great breakfast tomorrow morning.