My wife and I (hereafter referred to as Karen and Tom) had a very unproductive day at work on Friday as we counted down the hours.

Finally a little after 3pm we left for the airport. We were flying DFW-MIA-EZE departing at 6pm and although we didn't expect much traffic or any parking problems, sometimes it is just easier to arrive early. Plus …

Although we arrived a bit late, we had nothing pressing on our agenda for today, so a few hours didn't matter one way or the other.

We did have the joy of landing right after a Qantas flight from SYD and all of those passengers were in front of us through both the Reciprocity Fee and then Immigration -- that took nearly an hour :-(

But finally, …

A responsible traveler should have at least a basic understanding of the local language and for Spanish that is more than just saying *un momento por favor*. We were not responsible travelers :(

Why does that matter? Well, if you are getting in a cab headed to the airport for a very early morning flight (and you wanted to get as much sleep as …

We had a very leisurely start to our first day of trekking. Departure time was 9:30, so we had plenty of time to eat a wonderful breakfast and get our gear situated. Since the next two nights would be in tents, we needed to split our gear and only take what was needed. The remainder of our gear was shipped directly to the hotel where we would …

After a surprisingly restful sleep (remember this was Karen's first real night in a tent), we had a light breakfast and hoisted our packs onto our backs and set off.

David took us slightly off trail to explore a secluded waterfall that was picture perfect. It had Fitz Roy framed in the distance and we spent 20-30 minutes taking photos.

Later in …

We set off about 30 minutes early today because we wanted to be in front of the other group of hikers -- they had a big 15-20 person group and you don't want to be caught waiting at the rope bridge.

Also we were carrying our crampons for the glacier hike, pretty cool accessories and they fit nicely into our packs.

After roughly an hour we …

The original plan for the day had us trekking to a view point, but a combination of an overcast sky and Karen's knee had us modify the plan slightly.

We trekked to the clearing point at the top of the forest and had another experience of Patagonia wind -- although David reminded us that on a truly windy day, we wouldn't be standing there!

It was …

This morning would be the touristy part of our trip. No more trekking per se - although today's tour does have *multi-trek* in the name. A big tour bus picked us up in the morning -- I can't remember the exact time, but we had time to eat breakfast in the hotel and not feel rushed.

We had to make a few more stops to pick up other guests at …

Today would take us from FTE to AEP, switch to EZE and then fly to MIA on the overnight. And we still wouldn't be home until tomorrow morning.

Our driver arrived a few minutes later than our original pick-up time for the trip to the airport, but there was a substantial cushion already built-in so there was no problem.

Another one of the fun …