Breathtaking (in many senses) views... whew!

It's been a week here in Patagonia and so far my main mission has been to get to know the park. This essentially means that I get to play around until we have guests so that when they decide they want to go somewhere, I'll be able to give them first hand advice. Pretty sweet deal! A couple of days ago, Matt and I borrowed mountain bikes from the lodge and rode 15km or so down to the road where we got dropped off on the first day to hike down and check out the famous Baker river first hand. Our adventure led us down to the banks of the river, which tempted us to hop in. Matt went first and spent about 5 minutes whining about how cold it was before he finally jumped in. I went in and just quickly got it over with and came screaming back out of the river to dry off in the sun. Essentially like jumping into a bucket of water that has almost turned to ice. Whew. Chilly Chile.

Once we were nice and dry though, everything was lovely again. It was a really warm day, which makes me think summer here is going to be quite toasty (I wasn't sure I believe them when they told me that)Yesterday, I hiked up to Cerro Tamanguito. The trail is part of a loop trail that isn't quite finished yet. I think I did about 18 kilometers round trip (out and back). Took a LOT longer to hike UP UP UP than to scramble down, but I was rewarded with some really pretty views!

When I arrived back at the park headquarters, some of the staff had started an asado and immediately insisted that I eat a whole lot of meat (with some lettuce on the side). It was a welcome sight after 6 hours of tramping through the park. They definitely know how to grill some meat here for sure.

We have our first guests arriving on Thursday, a group with a former volunteer and a bunch of North American surfers. Should be interesting! I should probably start looking up some surfer lingo so I can totally fit in. Yeah right.