We left Calafate on Sunday morning, hoping that the weather would be a bit better a couple hundred kilometers north.  Turns out it was only worse.... We took the bus and it takes Route 40 for about 100km or so.  Route 40 is nothing but dirt roads and in the rain, it´s a complete mud hole.  We even saw an abandoned tour bus on the side of the road.  We were grateful for a pretty skilled driver.

We stayed at Rancho Grande the two nights we were there.  It´s a larger place than our hostel in El Calafate, but it´s right near the trail head and offers a fair amount to guests and passing travelers.  Given the rain, we took it pretty easy that first day - going out only to get a few groceries and dinner.  We had our best empanada yet that night.

The next morning we woke up early, hoping that weather conditions had improved.  There were a few spots of blue, but they were pretty deceiving.  No sooner did we hit the trail than so did the rain.  We ran into a couple we had overlapped with a few times in TDP - they had been there for 4 days hoping for a clear day, but they had worse luck than we did.  We planned on doing the hike, Laguna de los Tres that takes you to a lake at the base of Mt. Fitz Roy.  We stopped 2/3 of the way up since you couldn´t see ANYTHING.  The rain and the clouds had really socked in the mountainss.  Our friend Mike had a pretty good analogy for it.  He said that they felt like they were traveling in a land of giants and saw only their ankles.  It couldn´t have been more true and we were SOAKED.  It was the day we were the most grateful for our rain gear.

We tried to make the best of our disappointment and turned back to catch up on some much needed sleep and continue to eat!  We have been bottomless pits since we finished the circuit.  We again woke up early on Tuesday hoping for a change in the weather.  Trouble was, it was raining even harder.  We spent the morning playing cards in the hostel.  Finally, around 2pm the rain lifted and some blue skies appeared.  We made for the mirador in hopes of catching a glimpse of the giant before catching our bus at 6pm.  The blue skies were deceiving once again.  NO views were to be had.  We have to say, it was a bit of a let down.   We decided that catching Fitz Roy and TDP on good days is harder than winning the lottery.

When we boarded the bus for El Calafate the weather seemed to be improving.  We even heard that it was supposed to clear up and get nice for a number of days.  We were kicking ourselves that we didn´t have longer to spend there.  We figure we´ll just have to come back when we have no time constraints and just sit there until the clouds lift.

Our final night in Calafate was spent at our favorite restaurant, La Tablita.  We ate there on 2/13 and loved it.  Some of the best tenderloin we´ve ever had - and at great prices too!  The beef here is AWESOME!!!

The sun decided to come out this morning as we left Patagonia.... If only it had decided to come out earlier.  But, nonetheless, we´ve had an incredible time and seen some amazing things.  Things that seem to be out of this world.  We really do hope to come back one day, there is still so much to see.