Day 47 - Steak dinner

January 1 - Pampa Linda, Argentina

We woke up in the clouds - the tent and Refugio were covered by a blanket of white.  We made breakfast of oatmeal and granola and I made a pathetic instant coffee.  We had plenty of time before our ride left from the bottom of the mountain, but there wasn't much to see and I was fearing rain and thus unpassable trails, so we got started on the long jaunt down.  Quickly, we either fell below the clouds or they burned off (or both), and we walked for four hours in beautiful weather.  The water levels had lowered, making our water crossing much easier - more rocks were exposed than were the day before and areas with high water were now just muddy and trampled.  On the way down, we saw a huge condor and watched it soar back and forth in the valley.  We stopped along the river to finish our salami and cheese.

The rivers in this area were a light turquoise with orange rocks.  At the bottom of the trail, we laid in the grass outside the only place in the village - a restaurant and hosteria.  We made lunch, soup augmented with pasta. We also got ice cream from the restaurant while we waited for the van to leave at 5 PM. 

Also while we waited we watched a teenage kid practice his soccer skills - balancing the ball on his neck, head, feet very skilled. His favorite move was to move his head around the ball balanced in his neck whipping his head around in a circle. So quickly in fact he lost his clip on earring in the grass. Cursing while he searched for five minutes, he finally found his bling. 

The ride back was slow and bumpy, as we were in the back seat of the 20 person van.  We arrived back in town at 7:15 PM.  We sprinted to the hostel and Evan ran to go get our bags that we left at the old hostel.  We had a reservation for a nice dinner at 8 PM.

We were late, but we made to to our dinner reservation at Alto Fuego. Evan thought this the best meal we had all trip long. Rib eye with roasted veggies, mixed green salad, and bread with a fantastic homemade chimichurri.  We made notes of the chimichurri to replicate at home - olive oil, thyme, red pepper, garlic.