Day 6 of a Patagonia trip led by Southern Explorations (narrated by Nate Buchanan). The group, guided by Roberto and Guido, hiked from the trailhead toward Laguna Torre on a planned 10–12 mile route to a glacier viewpoint, moraine and glacial lake. Highlights include viewpoints at Margarita Waterfall, frequent rainbows (including a full rainbow over a glacier), guide explanations of glacial formation, strong winds at the lake that prevented drone use and made footage shaky, and participants collecting chunks of glacier and photographing the scenery.
Chapters
Today is day six of our Patagonia adventure with Southern explorations.
Our guides, Roberto and Guido, met us bright and early at our hotel and we headed to the trailhead for Laguna Torre.
Despite our three full days of hiking and traveling, our group was surprisingly energetic, especially since our Plan A got rained out yesterday. The sunshine and warm weather was definitely putting a pep in our steps.
Roberto showed us the route for the day, which was a 10 to 12 mile hike to a glacier viewpoint, then down to a glacial lake and then back to El Chitan. Also, we're still not allowed to fly the drone here, but even if we were, there's no way we could have with the fierce winds.
Our first stop was overlooking the Margarita Waterfall. Roberto told us that it was named after a lady who stopped to take a picture and they never saw her again. Then he told me that if I fell off the cliff we were standing on, he would rename it Car Cliff. But I passed.
We kept seeing rainbows around every corner was really adding to our good moods.
Right after we rounded this corner, we were all taken by surprise. That's because this is what we saw.
That is a full rainbow over a mountain with a glacier. Cute. Really long photo shoot.
Thankfully, the great people we're with also enjoyed using their cameras as much as we do.
Next, Roberto explained to us how this glacial valley was formed and how the glacier had moved back and forth, creating the moraine that we would ultimately be hiking to. All the guides that we've encountered up to this point have been extremely knowledgeable, and it's really added to the enjoyment of the hikes.
Sam.
Our final destination was getting super close, so we stopped at this campground to eat the lunch that our hotel packed for us.
Next, we had our final climb up the glacial moraine that revealed a stunning lake with wind blowing harder than we had ever experienced in our entire lives. If the footage is a little shaky, that's because of the wind, but it really made it even more fun. We could literally lean our entire bodies into the wind and almost knock.
We spent the next 30 minutes picking up chunks of glacier out of the lake and taking way too many pictures.
The glacial lake was an awesome culmination to the hike, but we finally had to retreat back from the winds and head back to El Ch.
We got back at 5pm and having started at 8.30am, we were exhausted. So we ended the day with the best way we could think of. Hot tub with a view.
