December 29, 2025
Chalten restday
Overcast and blustery at 06. Have the now usual porridge breakfast and linger in campsite common room until 08.40, when it really is windy out and finally decide the legs are stiff from yesterday's long walk and with the weather not so good, decide on a morning of journal updating.
Walk down the street to Matilda cafe but on arriving see it lifeless inside with a closed sign on the glass door. Forgot they take Mondays off. Head back up street to Pioneer cafe which has an old 1930s Fordson tractor outside. Inside a coffee and slice of lemon cake comes to 9,000 (£4.85) and wifi is fast.
During the morning various customers come, have coffee and many have big plates of waffles topped with red berries, cream and dulce de leche. While passerbys in stylist outdoor rainjackets lurch along the street into the wind or are blown along in the other direction while at times rain hammers against the windowpanes. A few pause to take selfies with the Fordson tractor and after two hours transcribing notes to the phone its lunchtime, so I order waffle with red berries with freshly squeezed orange juice to drink.
Back to canpsite for the afternoon where there are a lot of Swedes and a few Norwegians. "Har du vasket kaerna dine...." I hear one of the latter call. Have you washed your clothes. They have the washing machine booked up for the whole day when my clothes are in such need of washing. I got talking to a climber from Uppsala packing 6 cans of tuna for a multi-dayer up to and on the ice with an aim of climbing one of Cerro Torres peaks. "Tuna is so easy, all I have to do is open it and eat. I know I might be poisoning myself with mercury but"
It turned out a really nice calm evening and in order to have gained some physical exertion, walk along river where lots of others are out on the gravel-bars enjoying the evening too. I cross over the bridge and follow the opposite wooded riverbank, then climb to hilltop viewpoint.
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Back down and to supermarket to buy lunch items in case tomorrow is good. Brazilian in shower says tomorrow is cloudy with some rain. Then Wednesday is sweet.
Dinner, lentel stew and 2 empanadas in cafe with wine, followed by journal writing and back to bivouac.
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