Cycling Chile/Argentina '04 | El Chalten/Fitz Roy Index Day 22 Day 24
      Day 23: El Chalten The Last Supper

We moved camp to Chris's hostel so we could take a hike without worrying about our bikes.

It was a windy but otherwise lovely day. People say you never see Fitz Roy but today we did. Towering in the wind with hanging glaciers at its base, Cerro Fitz Roy looked like an angry Titan fighting not to let any clouds passing it to the west. It stuggled to keep its head above all the time separating the sky into two parts: the one on the left, a stormy whirling mass; the one on the right, a peaceful blue void.

I like Fitz Roy. It has characters.

Following a couple of more glacier lakes, we made a long loop back to Chalten just in time to cook up the last supper before our adventure really kicked off to Carretera Austral, Chile's southern highway through the Patagonia.

It was a feast and shopping for our main course -- grilled lamb with tomato and onion -- was an interesting experience itself. The butcher, after a quick glance at us standing behind the counter, confidently swung his knife in the air and chopped off exactly what we asked for -- dinner for two. I think the rump-shaking ripio had turned us into carnivores.

We shared the dining room with other travelers, among them, a couple of Chileans. They cooked up a tomato stew with onion and eggs. "My mother made better ones." One of them told me. It was delicious with bread.