Torres del Paine day 2

Trip Start Oct 19, 2007
1
113
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Trip End Ongoing


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Friday, February 29, 2008

We wake up at around 7 or so and Avida is our alarm clock and the most cheery person I have ever met at that time in the morning.  I think he is just happy that he gets to trek some more today.  This dude told us that he would be happiest just living in his tent and I completely believe him.  Instead of buying a house in Tel Aviv one day he should just buy or construct the biggest tent he can afford and put it in the middle of nowhere and live and be happy till kingdom come.  It's fucking cold out but I don't put on warm clothes although I really want to.  But the advice we received was spot on because in about 15 minutes I am hot as shit with just a t-shirt on.  Back to Avida, he may be slightly retarded.  He is always in a good mood but by far the worst listener I have ever met.  He just goes on and on about his tent or how much food he has and what he's going to eat for lunch or his time spent in Honduras.  While he is talking about Honduras I could ask him something like, so do you have any brothers or sisters and he would respond with "I went deep sea diving in Honduras every day for a week and I saw lots of fish".  Here's the thing, once he gets on a topic, just let him roll with it because he can't change course and think of anything else although it may take hours for him to finish speaking on that topic and he may repeat himself like 12 times. 

We see some stunning views of the mountains that most people don't get to see since we are on the backside of them.  We walk about 9km or so and then out of nowhere it starts pouring down rain.  Thankfully we were at a campsite eating lunch (although one that you had to pay for which didn't make the Isreali's happy) when the rain hit which gave us a chance to throw up the tents right away which allowed us to store our bags quickly so they didn't get too wet.  For some reason though I am soaked and cold and I start thinking how this is going to be a long week.  The good thing is that there is an enclosed hut on the campsite with a wood burning stove so we hunker down in there for the better part of the day.  The bad thing is there is a pipe that runs out of the top of the stove and as I am trying to dry off my socks by hanging them on a nail somewhat above the stove I lean over a bit too far, sort of lose my balance and grab the piping hot pipe with my hand and burn it.  Great, now I am wet, cold and my hand is burnt.  It's not bad but it hurts and it may leave a scar although a small one.  I berate myself for being an idiot and I have to remind myself once again not to touch things protruding from stoves.  The craziest thing that happens all day is that we meet a really cool French dude who doesn't despise Americans.  We hang with this cat for most of the day as everyone is basically stuck in this hut with nothing to do and most people spend their time eating or reading (I do both as well as make fun of everyone in my mind).  I hang with Tom quite a bit and we are starting to become pretty good friends as well.  Except that for dinner he burns the rice and it tastes awful and now I sort of hate him. 

By the time it stops raining it's too late to continue on any further so we decide just to stay here for the night.  This is a paid camp site which means that there are more facilities here including a real bathroom which allows me to take my first dump since I set out on this fiasco.  I do everything I can not to go in the woods.  As I am chilling on the toilet I see a bill by the garbage can and sure enough it's a $5,000 peso note.  Sweet, that's like $11usd and I will actually make money now by staying at this camp site.  I'm pretty psyched about this event as it is definitely the best thing that has happened since I began this journey.  If nothing else, Avida is a super nice guy.  He lets me put my bag in his tent in case it rains tonight which is super cool of him.  Tom and I climb into the tent at some point and it's sort of fun like having a sleep over when you were a kid as we talk about a bunch of shit.  Tom is pretty intelligent and quite philosophical so we have some interesting conversations. But it's also freezing and the ground is uncomfortable and I know tomorrow will be another long day and I pray it won't be raining.
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