We are happy to sleep in this morning and forego the sunrise photo-shoot. It was so cold yesterday and Howard says he can’t do any better than the photos he got then. When the die-hard photographers get back, they confess that the light was not as good as the day before so we are happy that we were lazy. Our destination today is Lake Capri–a 5 kilometer hike.
It is a steady up-hill trek but we go at our usual “slow and steady” pace and it is quite an easy hike. We have lunch at an incredibly beautiful viewpoint. Jonathan spreads out the familiar checkered tablecloth on the ground and we have empanadas in addition to the usual fare.
My favorite guy, Scott, stuffs food in his mouth while he stands over the food on the tablecloth. Debris is falling out of his mouth onto the food below him! I tell Jonathan that I will not eat any of those “contaminated” leftovers! He promises to throw them out. When Rex arrives with Stuart and he says they saw Magellanic Woodpeckers! They are the largest woodpeckers in the Americas. We are sick to have missed it! We are once again subjected to the routine pleas for Stuart o have something to eat–god, that gets old! After lots of photographs of the beautiful scene and our picnic lunch,
we continue our hike to the lake. We see Condors, White-throated Treerunners, Thorn-tailed Rayaditos and a Chilean Flicker. The lake is beautiful and is partially frozen. The photographers hope to capture the reflections of the snowy mountains on the lake. As we start our descent our eyes are peeled for those woodpeckers. And we find a whole family! Except for the female, who is elusive, the birds appear to be unconcerned about our presence.
We spend a good while photographing and I take some nice videos, I think. Jonathan radios Rex, who is behind us with Stuart (of course) and Scott, about the woodpeckers. To give Rex an idea of where we are, Jonathan tells Rex that he is so close he can smell him. Rex says that’s Scott he smells. Now I know for sure who did not have their laundry done yesterday. As a reward for our hard work, cold beer awaits us at the van. Jonathan is really a funny guy with a lot of energy. He can frequently be silly and Mari Ann is getting a little tired of not getting a straight answer to important questions. He also has the patience of a saint. He is the go-to guy for problems and he always solves them. He’s a “glass is half-full” kind of guy. He said the other day “is ANYthing all right?” The point being that at least one thing must be fine–don’t dwell on things that are not all right. Jonathan has a wealth of natural history knowledge of this region and we really appreciate hearing about it. We are in the small town of El Chalten,
the native culture’s name for the largest peak (also called Fitzroy, the captain of the Beagle, Darwin’s ship on his famous voyage). Jonathan says El Chalten means “smoking mountain” in the native language. Frequently the peak is shrouded by clouds that look like smoke. Jonathan is an American who first came here when he was 19 years old and loved it from the beginning. I’m not sure how long he’s been here full-time but it’s been long enough to build an “adventure” business. His website is Patagonia Adventure. He puts together some extreme treks that include difficult ice field crossing–so not for us “old folks.” I suggested that he consider a sort of senior citizen’s outward bound program.
I think it might work. His ranch is located in a very remote area. His description of getting there made us all tired. It entails a long drive, a primitive water crossing, a horseback ride and a trek on foot. He’s trying to improve the property enough to have visitors stay at the ranch and make treks from there. But he also needs to get an easier way to get there. Rex is a good match with Jonathan. Rex is a quiet, steady guy. There is frequently a pause when you ask him a question–he gives thoughtful, slow responses. He always has a sly half-smile on his face as if he knows a secret joke. We are lucky to have such great guys as our leaders. Seconds before we leave for dinner, Ben asks if anyone has seen his Ex-Officio underwear. I look quickly at the underwear stack and I realize that we have more underwear than we came with. Now I’m worried that Howard is wearing Ben’s underwear. I pull Howard into the room, shut the door and tell him to drop his drawers. He says “Christine, can’t this wait???” But I want to know now. I think I’ve figured it out: Howard’s Ex-Officio underwear has the brand name on the waistband elastic and Ben’s has a label attached to the elastic. I give Ben his 2 pairs of underwear and assure him that Howard did not wear either of them. Whew! We go to a funky little restaurant. The lady is very welcoming and friendly. The guy in the chef’s hat walks through the reception area more than once with an incredible scowl on his face as he looks at our table. Within 10 minutes of our arrival the chef leads 2 small children out the door and we think he’s going to lock them in the car; that’s not good. But instead he drives off. Where is the chef going? Who will cook our meal? He eventually drives back and brings the children back inside still scowling at us. We realize it was a grocery run because he has a package of meat with him. Howard orders the “Argentine lamb” and I order lamb goulash with speatzle. Howard’s lamb is unrecognizable. It’s cut into weird pieces and much of it is so dry it’s like jerky. (I should not remind myself of jerky–that brings back bad memories of horses and hair.) That scowling chef got his revenge (for what we don’t know) on poor unsuspecting Howard with that inedible lamb. My dish was not bad.