Day 13 - why is "Fitzy Roy" two words?

We woke up feeling grumpy and ill-rested on day 13 (thanks to a loudly snoring but otherwise uncommunicative guy sharing our dorm and the sound of super strong winds gusting outside). However, it would be lazy in the extreme to take 2 bum days in a row, so we psyched ourselves up in order to tackle the most epic (and as a result, most overcrowded) day walk of them all - the Laguna de los Tres (three of what? We have no idea...) This is the hike to the base of the iconic Cerro Fitz Roy. The other name for this mountain is "Chaltén" (which the town is named after), meaning "smoking mountain" in a local indigenous language. This is due to the clouds usually shrouding the peak. Clouds that were out in full force as we set off on our 20km walk.

Heading off, hoping the wind is blowing the clouds away from us, not towards us


At the first viewpoint, the clouds were still against us


Woodpeckers rock out the hardest out of all birds because are such haradcore headbangers. Check out the sweet mohawk on this one!

It's a wild Jeremy! *use pokeball*


Where's this glacier going? I don't know, it's just hanging out *ba dum tchsss* (sorry, sorry)

To our delight, we got super lucky and by the time we made it to the lake at the base of the mountain, the weather had cleared up enough for us to see some of the mountain. The lake was the most amazing blue colour (obviously magic, once again), and the water was absolutely delicious (yay for lack of chlorine taste!). I had vaguely understood the advice of one of the Italian guys from the night before, who had said to not stop when we got to Los Tres but continue beyond for a couple of minutes. There was another lake, just as blue, lurking just around the rock pile! This place was seriously magical, a fact keenly felt by a cranky old man sitting on a rock who yelled at chattering people nearby to "shut up! This place is a church!". Preach, dude.

SO BLUE!


The next lake over - bluer than Jeremy's eyes


We huddled behind a rock and ate this chocolate bar. It tasted like despair and familial betrayal.

Clearly the mountain gods were displeased with Being disturbed by so many tourists, and by the time we were 1/3 of the way back the clouds had returned in full force and a relentless drizzle had set in. Speed-walking to keep ourselves from being swallowed by the steadily descending clouds, we completed the 9 hour walk in 7 hours and 58 minutes.