Patagonia log: Day 5
February, 2023
When the alarm went off early morning, little did we know that this was the beginning of the best day of the trip (and one of the tops of my life experience so far, to be honest).
The weather wasn’t at its best. Rainy, and windy, we even questioned if we should scout for the sunrise or not. Part of us did, but others decided to sleep a bit longer instead.
The road was still dark, and dark clouds were covering the sky—a mixture of a mystical with spooky mood. We arrived at the beginning of the Lago Pehoé for some pictures, and then the beauty came - an entire rainbow showed its face, and soon a second one started forming as well—a mystical beauty, changing and adjusting by the minute. The mountains in the back only slightly appeared behind an opaque white wall. We got creative, being careful not to let the occasional rain droplets get in the lenses. The water of the lake was stormy - the perfect scenario for dramatic shots. We all got creative, enjoying that moment. A few sun rays would occasionally pass through, illuminating only slightly a few silhouettes.
It was worth it waking up early to cherish this unexpected beauty.
We headed back to the Hostel for a good breakfast with the others. Some went to bed to recover some sleep; others already initiated the editing session.
Leo gave us a few tricks on editing, and we all enjoyed the downtime to go through the images taken in the last few days.
Soon, hunger started appearing for all of us - lunchtime. The Hostel didn’t have food in-house today, so we took the cars and drove to the only cafeteria inside the park there is. We had a snack (and bought some for later on, for dinner) and headed to explore the Mirador Condor - a short but steep trail that takes you to the top of a rock with a panoramic view. We later saw that there were a few Condor nests inside the rock - thus the name.
The wind was quite strong while going up. A descending hiker mentioned a strong wind on the top - a wind funnel at nearly 200km/hour. I’ve heard that but couldn’t imagine what he meant until we reached that point…
At the final bit of the trail, before the last stretch to the top, a part of the path passed between two rocks, creating the wind funnel the man had mentioned.
I watched as two of our group went through - they were strong men but seemed to be struggling to face the power of the blow. I and one other decided to try it as well. Before halfway through, both of us got thrown to the floor with the strength of the wind. There was no way we could do that. It was hard to stand and move; I’d never experienced something like that before. We returned the few steps we had taken. We then decided to use our group power to face the challenge. In groups of three, we held ourselves together and faced the strong blow; we managed to go past it.
The view of the lookout (as well as the experience, to be honest) was definitely worth it! A 360-degree view of the park, with its majestic mountains and lakes. We admired them while trying to hold ourselves not to be blown away.
On our way down (after again crossing the funnel, holding each other firmly), something magical started taking momentum. Five of us deviated a bit from the route down to explore another viewpoint while the others continued descending. We began creating images there until nature started responding to our creative flow by delivering us a stunning sunset with immense orange clouds shaped in a way I’d never seen before. The sky was constantly changing, thus giving room for new pictures by the minute. We all entered in a thrill of the beauty shown before our eyes. Yells of happiness and pure freedom, we danced and sang to the magic of it.
After the sun had set, but that glow was still in the sky, we descended the rest of the trail to where the cars were parked (the others had already driven back to the Hostel) in such a euphoria that the glacier water of the lake (nearing zero degrees celsius) called us to jump in - a refreshing moment, a thrill that fills the body and mind completely. That only got our energy even higher.
After drying and putting the layers back on to warm up the body, we stopped by a Hotel in the park to take a few creative shots in the blue hour before returning.
While driving back to the Hostel, the stars filled the sky. We stopped in the middle of the way, turned off the engine, got out of the car and admired the darkness, stillness and silence of the starry night. What a moment, shared with exceptional individuals.
Back at the Hostel, we met the others, had something small to eat and packed our gear to chase some night photography. The sky was somewhat clouded, and we didn’t have enough fuel to drive back inside the park. Thus we went to the Laguna Amarga instead to try out our luck. It was stupendous, as one would wish, but it was still worth the shot. We did a few takes before lying on the sandy floor and admiring the beauty of the stars.
What a way to finalize this day filled with admiration, love, appreciation and freedom. Thank you, nature, for that you enable. And thank you to the individuals that enhanced the experience further. Shared moments like this are impossible to fully translate into words or images - one can only experience it to know what it was. Grateful for having had this opportunity, this moment, with these people..
