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.