A Cow Skull

April 3, from the itinerary: Glaciar Vspigniani - full day, easy. Elevation gain - 600 feet, length 3 miles. We take a van 45 minutes from the lodge to the south shore of the Desierto Lake. from there, we cross this historical lake while enjoying the view of the Vespigniani Galcier - 20 minutes. We land on the northernmost tip of the lake and tak a not so rugged track through the forest, reaching some of the most unexplored parts of this area. We reach the southern edge of the lake and finalize the exploration taking a van back to the lodge

This was a bit of a disappointing day and hike. I guess after yesterday most would have been. Our guide was Rosie and we were joined by a family from Illinois: from highland park Illinois- Pam- PsychoAnalyst and James- investment banker, their daughter Joanna who worked with disabled children, and her fiance Matthew who worked at the Northwestern Sports Network.

It started with a 45 minute van ride over the rough road, mediocre views.

We had one stop along the way to see a nice waterfall.

The boat ride was not nearly as impressive as the one at Torres and was only about 20 minutes.

We stopped and had our briefing at a geodesic dome on the shore which is where we were to have lunch. I had a bit of a sense of humor failure when I thought the guide said our elevation gain was to be 1500 feet when I was expecting about 400.

The path going up was rather muddy and we went really slowly - too slowly.

Along the way we got some good pictures of a black-throated huet-huet.

I was amazed when she said we had arrived when we had only just started. The elevation gain was about 400 feet. My mood improved. We even saw a rainbow.

At the lookout we saw and heard a glacier avalanche - no photos - but cool to hear.

Coming down we hiked along a waterfall

and then along the lake shore

back to the geodesic dome for lunch

After lunch we had 45 minutes to spare before the boat left at 1:30, so we went back along the green trail (easiest) and saw a cow skull - not sure how we missed that the first time.

We almost missed return boat.

Uneventful return trip which was just as boring.

When we got back they had blueberry scones for snacks and amazing lamb empanadas for appetizers.

Dinner was charcoaled beef, sides were beet carpaccio, charcoaled cabbage, and salsa. Espresso martini, wine, desert wine

We were invited to dine with Lise and Chip which continued to after dinner drinking with Ximena and Raffy until midnight. I tried to leave earlier, but wasn't allowed. I was exhausted from not much sleep the night before and we had to get up at 6:30, so was not a happy camper....