after a reasonable starting time to the day, we were off for some more hiking. took the bus out to nearby lago gutierrez where our hike started. walked along a peaceful gravel road next to this large, beautiful lake for 2km and hit the trailhead. 10km to go to refugio frey. the first half of the hike took us through flat and dusty terrain, not fully desert, but not far from it. then, upward following a creek. the forest was pleasant enough as it’s nice to see leafy trees every now and again. intermixed were bamboo plants and lots of horseflies.
soon, we were at lagauna tonchek (toncheck tarn?). gorgeous setting for sure. some europeans were hanging out at the refugio drinking beer. looked like a good plan, but we weren’t staying at refugios this time; instead, onward and upward.
passed by the next lake, lagauna schmoll. this is where the refugio down below gets its drinking water and water for their bathrooms (which actually have running toilet water!). not sure how they dispose of the refuse from the bathrooms, but we did see a helicopter fly in and out of the refugio ~10 times on our approach hike.
amazing how beautifully clear these lakes are. zero bugs (minus the horseflies) too, so that’s pretty sweet. the only drawback is a restriction on swimming in some of them. alas, still incredibly nice.
from here we headed up and over a pass of sorts (one of many in the vicinity) and had a solid 1600 vertical feet of scree in front of us. awesome times. at least we didn’t have to go up it.
after emptying my shoes a few times, we were now in the forest approaching refugio and lago jakob. again, a stellar location with a gorgeous lake. this time, we took a dip in the lake as we didn’t see signs saying otherwise and observed that their water source came from a different location.
a strong breeze combined with a warm sun dried us off in minutes. amazing how warm the sun is here. our guide books tell us these parts of the world lack ozone for part of the year. judging by the abnormal feeling of heat and the whiteness of the sun, we’d say that time of year is now.
made dinner, watched the sun set, and rolled into the tent for a peaceful night of sleep not too far from the sound of the lake’s outlet.
the next morning we headed off for a side trip to another lake – lago tempanos. best lake of them all, by far. probably the purest looking lake i’ve ever seen. not sure if there’s a glacier or permanent snowfield above it, but there was certainly plenty of snow. even more amazing than how beautiful the lake was is the fact that it continues to rain down ash in these parts from a nearby erupting volcano. pictures carrie had seen showed feet of ash in the hiking areas where we now were. rain and wind must have taken care of it, and now, we only see remnants of ash on the trail or on the existing snowpack.
back to camp, packed up, and headed out. the local mountain club where we got some of beta for this trip informed us it was “all downhill” from here. that’s true, if you omit the additional 1300 vertical feet of gain you have. overall, it wasn’t bad, and some spots were quite nice. normally, it’s recommended to do this trip over 3 days, but we opted for 2. we felt it by the end (getting old and out of shape and all). fortunately, on our 4km road walk back to town after the hike, we were able to successfully hitchhike out. we had a hard time understanding him, and he us, but it still worked. back to a different bus stop and 6 pesos later, we were back at the hostel.
the day was somehow still young (since things here run quite late helps things), so we cleaned up and headed to town for some steak – well-deserved steak. despite being a touristy restaurant, the servers were a bit weird. the one who took the steak order (which was different than the drinks order server), told me not to order something after i asked for it. umm, why put it on the menu then? i got it anyway and it was good. carrie’s steak was probably the best we’ve had on our trip, maybe tied with the one cooked at our hostel back in montevideo, uruguay.
average costs:
bife de lomo (the good steak): 70 pesos ($16)
bus to/from hike: 6 pesos ($1.50)
all photographs: https://picasaweb.google.com/mlh4480/HoneymoonDia2122
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