Trekking to the Fitz Roy mountain.

Hello again,
time for another short entry.
after Torres del Paine, i went back to Argentina and went strait away to trek in the Fitz Roy Mountain.
Bus to the windy town El Chalten. by now i had already bought my own tent and cooking stove, as I found my self camping more than i thought i would. my backpack is getting heavier everyday.

The Fitz Roy Massif, a group of steep mountains, is a heaven for rock climbers. Tr eking in the park was just like a "walk in the park", after the hard terrain of the Torres.
I loaded my backpack with food for 4 days, took a small map and started walking, in a beautiful weather. in the first night i slept in a campground just beneath the Fitz Roy. Met a cool welsh couple and w spent the night together around a bottle of wine. it was getting really cold and windy, but as long as it is dry, i don't care. An Argentinian guy from Buenos Aires joined me for dinner. He was also trekking alone. He took out a small Joint to twist out the atmosphere and we smoked it together. i started to freeze as the night was getting colder and the effect of the "J" amplified the cold. i couldn't sit anymore s i needed to warm myself, so i got up and had a walk around the camp ground. at one point i went to fill my water bottle in the river which was just out of the forest, and suddenly this magnificent image appeared in front of me. well, it wasn't really like that, but i had seen it like that in my head. thank god for the green stuff.
i spent a few good hours making long exposures. after an hour a full moon came to visit, and the whole thing became magical. fellow travelers gathered around me to see and got fascinated by the dramatic images. it made me feel really good.

The next day was warm and clear, with little clouds appearing and disappearing forming different shapes in the sky. My friend Aner gave me this poetry book of Avraham Halfi, and asked me to read it when I'm in the top of a mountain. well, i wasn't on top of a mountain, instead i was on the banks of a lagoon. i sat down and read a few poets. so the next entry is for you, Aner.

I kept walking for 3 more days until the clouds arrived, signaling me it is time to move on.
I arrived back to El Chalten in the afternoon after a long walk thru a dead forest full of woodpeckers. i took a shower, ate a pizza and drank a 1 liter bottle of beer. with a pleasant feet ache and a swinging head i headed to the exit of this desert town to start my hitchhiking period towards Chile.

It took no more than 30 minutes for a car to stop and take me to the next road crossing.
they left me on Ruta 40, the Argentinian desert "highway" which crosses the Patagonia country north to south. highway is a great word. actually it was a gravel road all along. i walked to the intersection and found out I'm not alone. A German girl and Danish guy was lying on the road waiting for a car to pass. they where there for a good 2 hours. nothing. i sat down near them and we instantly became friends. i saw a shesh-besh board poping ot of his small pack. i kne we would get along just fine. after 30 minutes a pick-up track stopped and took us to the next town. it was getting late, around 17:00 and we started to look for a place to camp near a river, but still not giving up on hitching for that day. after only 10 minutes another pick up stopped. this time with 2 Argentinian friends who came back from Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego) from an army reunion of the Falkland war. they were kind and happy and took us for a long road. but that another story.

so,
thanks for every one who wrote back or placed a comment.
press here to see the rest of the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/eilonpaz/TheFitzRoyMassifArgentina?authkey=Zc7t7y4vpiU
stay tuned
E