Cycling Chile/Argentina '04 | El Chalten/Fitz Roy Index Day 21 Day 23
      Day 22: El Chalten Ah-Lew-Me-'Ni-Um

Didn't I say don't spray the cat. We had another 6Am "water drill" putting tarps on our tent. In the end, it was only sprinkles.

But the sprinkle lasted all day. With Fitz Roy in the cloud and a good chance of getting soaked, we stayed in camp instead of taking a chance hiking.

Once hanging around camp long enough, we started to discover things of "particular" interests. One of them was the toilet. The handle is only on the outside. Unless you have a sticky finger or nails strong enough to hold on to a screw-head no bigger than a needle-eye, your only option of having any privacy is pretty much playing with your luck. No wonder someone hand-made a miniature Fitz Roy straight out the door. I believe it has a purpose. Chalten is still rustic. I like it.

Late in the afternoon, while the three of us were chatting by our tent, we saw someone out in the woods poking his head here and there. Then to our surprise, it was Chris, the German cyclist we met in Natales. Somehow he learned we were here and came in to look for us. Great, we got 4 people in our crossing team now. We made plan to hike with him the next morning while Graham, a trail runner, had more ambitious plans -- he was going to run some 30km to see an ice-field.

We had a cook-out with Graham. (Okay, the difference between cook-in and cook-out is only putting the stove in or out of the tent.) When we were almost done eating, Graham was still waiting for his lentils to be cooked. With his strong British ascent, Graham told us very seriously that we should not cook with an aluminum pot. "Do you know aluminum is not good for you?"

Aluminum, when it is Al-Lew-Mi-'Ni-Um, sounded especially chemical if not scary and we both agree with Graham, Al-Lew-Mi-'Ni-Um is not good for you.