Swiss and a little more English

We have arrived back from a 3-day 2-night excursion into the national park outside of El Chalten. Our first day we hiked into the lake, Laguna Torre, which is the closest point one can get to the Cerro Torre peak (of worldwide fame) without hiking across a glacier field. We were very fortunate to have a view of the peak after about an hour of hiking and then that was it. The weather was beautiful for the hike to the lake and while we setup camp, but it started raining towards the end of lunch and didn't stop until sometime early the next morning. I blamed the rain on the Swiss couple that we met while staying in the Hostel in El Chalten (they were also camping at the lake), because the rain started in Torres del Paine the day that they arrived and didn't stop until they left. They took it in good humor. I chatted with a British man for a little while, who commented that he (mis)thought he was escaping the British winter. I suppose I could have blamed the weather on him as well, but we were too busy joking about the shortage of peanut butter. Turns out that he also stocked up in Puerto Natales, Chile. He figured that possession of peanut butter must be illegal in Argentina. I tried to relay the funny chat we had later to Kristine. Here's how it went:

Kevin: Turns out that the British guy stocked up on peanut butter in Puerto Natales, as well.
Kristine: Mmm-hmm.
Kevin: Yeah, he said that there was a minimum 5-year sentence if you are caught with peanut butter in Argentina.
Kristine: (looking surprised and wide-eyed) Really?
Kevin: Yup, and if it's crunchy it's a minimum of 10-years.

This conversation probably had something to do with the comment she made to me the next day. Something about not caring if I keeled over dead and my carcas was scavenged by the Pumas. I try to be mature and look past these sorts of comments.

We managed to get the tent relatively dry before heading out to a campsite just below the Fitz Roy peak (also quite famous). On our way, we transitioned from the British Winter to a Colorado winter. Yep, snow, wind, and cold. Didn't snow much, but my toes just finally thawed out. Fitz Roy refused to come out of the clouds. It did tease me. As we packed everything up the next morning, there was just a whif covering the peak. So...

Kevin: Hey! It looks like it might clear. Do you want to climb up to Laguna Los Tres (an 1.5 hour climb straight up the side of the hill, but with a great view of Fitz Roy).
Kristine: No.

We had a similar conversation about an hour and a half later when we passed by Laguna Capri on our way back to El Chalten:

Kevin: Hey! Do you want to go check out the lake?
Kristine: No.

And you'd think she was the one with the sleeping bag that lets out all the heat and keeps in all the moisture.

Quick update on the itinerary: tomorrow we rest and maybe go for a bike ride. The next day we bus to El Calafate. The next day we fly to Buenos Aires. The next day we (hopefully) fly to Porto Natales in order to arrive at the Grady's farm on the 18th. Lots of travelling, but most of it with a roof over our heads.

Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for reading the blogs!