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Portillo

With Ruthie I hitchhiked from Santiago to Portillo which is an old ski station that lies right before the border between Chile and Argentina, up high in the Andes Mountains. On the shores of Laguna del Inca we put up our tent, and went for a short evening hike, only to find the tent gone when we returned. After searching for hours in the dark without luck we had to give up, assuming that the wind had carried the tent out in the lake, so instead we had to make do with a couch in an old hotel not so far away, where they took pity on us and let us sleep for free in the lounge, as they didn't have any guests anyway.

April 16th, 2011

We got picked up by a truck, and slowly made our way up the 29 hairpin turns carrying several tons of cherries. We were jumping off shortly after, while the driver continued towards Brazil.

Trucks and buses making their way up the mountain

Right as we had come to terms with the clouded afternoon sky, the setting sun illuminated the mountain from underneath the cloud cover

The glacier again, now a bit later in the evening. This was shortly before we learned that our tent had left us to go swimming.