Cycling Chile/Argentina '04 | Torres del Paine Index Day 11 Day 13
      Day 12: Refugio Grey -> Camp Italiano Trekking: 20KM Tricked

What happened to all the people last night, they all disappeared when we got up -- another late one for us. Now we finally got to check out our surroundings. Out to the lake, Lago Grey, there were numerous icebergs big and small floating in the grayish water. Last night we saw the sign to a mirador (a lookout point) on our way in to the campsite, so after leisurely taking care of our morning chore, we set out with only our cameras.

The glacier was massive and the beauty was we could walk right down to the lake shore and discovered in awe what seemed to be a small block of ice from the distance was in fact tens of feet high. We spent more than an hour there, a lot of which waiting for the sun to peek through the cloud. When that happened, the crystal blue color of the glacier was simply splendid.

The cloud stayed behind as we started retracing our track last night. I enjoyed our night hike for the solitary and a feeling of mystery. But now, under the bright morning sun, we got to see the full version of the track through lush forests, wild flowers, streams, waterfalls, and gorgeous view on the ridge looking out to Lago Grey dotted by floating ice blocks.

Back to the refugio by catamaran and off to camp Italiano. There were not much altitude changes but every turn we made we got to see the mountains from a different angle -- fantastic. After a river crossing over a hanging bridge, we found camp Italiano and were shocked to see trash on the ground everywhere.

At night, we heard loud noise that sounded like thunder. Brian once again scrambled outside to cover our tent only to be greeted by stars twinkling above. Later we realized we had been tricked by rocks and ice falling down the face of the glacier -- it was THAT loud.