First day at Ecocamp, Lago-Weber hike, Torres Del Paine NP, Chile

Southern Patagonia has become a well know place for hikers and trekkers, and it shows in the number of people particularly here (Torres Del Paine is the best know part of Patagonia..many people do both Chile and Argentina, but more do just Torres Del Paine.  Of course there are a lot of folks here because it is jaw dropping beautiful.  We signed up for the Lago-Weber hike, a fairly easy 10 mile ramble farther out in the park with views of the whole range from various points and no people..we saw no one else until the last half mile where we met three groups of two each who were just doing a short but steep hike up to the view point.  We had another minor mishap, when I started taking pictures and realized that I had forgotten to put my SD card in, so we used Brad's iPhone to take our photos that day, which means I missed a few wildlife photos such as an armadillo (a rare sighting there, and missed a chance to get some really good Andean condor photos.  It was brisk, and the peaks were often socked in but we had only a little precipitation, as opposed to bigger rains by the mountains.  Henry, our guide, said this is one of his two favorite hikes in the park (we do his favorite tomorrow).  All in all a really nice day..Henry is a great guy, 31, a degree in teaching english, but his passion is the utdoors, so he's been guiding for last three years...spent a year in Australia on a work VISA program that Chile has with several countries (not US however)..spoke excellent English..is from the Atacama Desert region, his dad sounded just like my dad in so many ways.  Very interesting to talk to him, and a great hike.

 Mystery armadillo shot

 Two andean condors perched on mountainside

 Local deer, very rare sighting believe it or not..they are very rare here