12 December 2007

I was supposed to break the record today. Instead, we're still in Chile.

Yesterday we got the news that we wouldn't be going Tuesday or Wednesday, so eight of us got a minibus and driver and went to Torres del Paine National Park. It was nearly noon by the time we left, and the speed our driver went it was quite a long drive there. It was worth it though. Pretty nice scenery, with the mountains in the distance, becoming more snow-capped as we approached. The trip was over six hours.

Frederick, Susan, Peter, James, Mark, Mark, and Mike were with me. (Check icemarathon.com for more info on the team and daily updates.)

Many of the trees along the way were stripped bare by relentless winds in the area. A lot of them look like they're growing sideways.

(Around noon)
I'm sitting at the Hosteria Las Torres, in a beautiful lodge with amazing views of the mountains in every direction.
When we arrived last night around 7:00 p.m. it was raining a little and the wind was stiff enough that we had to fight to reach the front door. We rented some rooms and then proceeded to the hotel restaurant for a meal. Well, meal might be a bit of an understatement. Their buffet is amazing. Fresh salads, smoked salmon, leg of lamb, roast pork, chicken, beef. And a dessert table where you could easily hurt yourself.

Mike decided that we needed a bottle of wine for the table. Then another one. We ended up with five bottles of Terrunyo Carmenere before we were finished drinking it. And that was just because they ran out of stock. So we switched to a nice Pino Noir for a few more bottles. Somewhere around 11 or so we moved over the bar. I finally called it a night around 12:30. A couple hours later Peter and Susan came back to the room. Most of the other guys were still at it. (For those of you who might be concerned, keep in mind that the drinking was over the course of five hours or so, and there was plenty of food and water involved along the way, so I never got drunk. This time, anyway.)

It's raining sideways this morning, but we decided to hike the trails anyway. We were just going to go up an hour and back then drive around some other parts of the park, but decided to spend more time hiking. The higher we got, the better the scenery. Still, I have a mission to accomplish so I didn't hike for too long. Probably about 2 1/2 hours. We grabbed some lunch when everyone got back and headed back toward Punta Arenas.