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After breakfast, we kind of stood around and did nothing until the sun cleared the huge mountains and warmed the place up a bit. It was pretty funny seeing everyone just wait for it, then spring into action once the camp was bathed in light. Being a desert ecosystem, it gets hot during the day and equally as cold at night. Once the sun hit, we packed up our tents and hit the trail to the next camp – Casa de Piedra. 

Today had more ups and downs than yesterday, but was still pretty mellow. A bridge crossing and walking through a dry riverbed made for some really interesting terrain. Matt also brought out his drone at one of our rest breaks – despite there being 10 mph winds, the drone didn’t seem fazed by it at all. Matt had tried flying it at camp yesterday but got told off by the camp warden as it might upset the mules. Mules clearly need to get with the times, haven’t they heard of Prime Air?

Arriving at Casa de Piedra, we set up camp like yesterday and had dinner – same butternut squash as last night for me, though this time without the melted cheese which made me a little sad. This camp was much colder than Pampa de Lenas, and everyone had their puffies on to stay warm, though like the previous one, was located in gorgeous terrain. The highlight of the day occurred a few hours after we went to bed – a magnitude 5.3 earthquake that woke us up. Nothing major, but we were pretty close to the epicenter and what we felt didn’t feel like wind.

Tomorrow we get to ford a river on Mules, looking forward to that!

Continue to Day 5 – Arrival at Expedition Base Camp One – Plaza Argentina