At some point in the middle of the night, I woke up to a soft rain falling on our MSR tent. It is easily one of my favorite sounds in the world and I went back to sleep feeling relaxed, warm and dry.

While the night's rain may have improved my sleep, it turned into a steady drizzle in the morning. Worse, up in the pass in which we were heading, it was clearly snowing and blowing higher up.

Pekin and his son Louis stopped by our tent and offered a simple explanation, 'mui ventoso - very windy'.

Both Ryan and I have become accustom to these delays. For this trip, we built some time in our schedule for delays like this, but realistically not much. Its not always easy to rearrange and reschedule but a seven hour horseback ride through some of Patagonia's most wild country is no place to be taking unnecessary risks.

Besides Louis has asked us several times directly, 'can you ride a horse?'

Pekin invited us into his small shack in the early afternoon for carne - thick slabs of juicy steaks freshly butchered from a large skinned cow hanging in a nearby tree.

'Better than Argentinean beef,' I said in broken Spanish. And I meant it. The pot of meat was passed around and around until we were completely full telling stories and laughing all the while.

We helped with the dishes and made a beeline for the tent and a long afternoon nap. At home, I had long conversations with Maria about how this particular adventure was actually work. Sleeping away the afternoon didn't really help my case.

Still, whatever the reason, I feel lucky to be here in this amazing place.

Lastly, please check out my web site or DeLorme mapshare page as I will have my inReach tracking turned on and you can follow our route online.

Image: The lunch of kings!