Rendezvous with a woodpecker

For sure you’ve met people during your travels who kept recommending another much better place, the so-called must-see. Otherwise you shouldn’t really claim that you have been in that country if you skipped that highlight. To be honest, I always hesitated when someone asked me about my personal travel highlight. I could never really understand this widespread desire for a ranking. That would have been unfair – in respect to all the other travel days and places. So my excitement for the upcoming hike around Cerro Torre was just as huge again.

The three guys – with whom I shared the hostel room in El Calafate for 1 night – couldn’t understand that I had already been around for two weeks and still haven’t seen the highlight of Patagonia. Cerro Torre is considered the most difficult peak in the world among mountaineers. Reinhold Messner called him a “scream of stone”. Because anyway we all wanted to go there the next day, the four of us decided to go together to El Chalten.

But then my three snoring colleagues received a bad weather report. Suddenly they wanted to remain here, hoping for better weather. So that their highlight would work better for the photos on Instagram. I mean, how many hours, days, months have we wasted waiting for something? For the plane departure, the weekend or until the Corona epidemic is over? How much lifetime we keep on wasting. If we would just stop killing our present time and making happiness dependent on the future, no longer we would be too focused on reaching our goals.

Then we would finally enjoy our trip. And get relaxed. Or during a traffic jam maybe starting to reflect on something or giving our mind a well-deserved break. Starting a conversation with a stranger on the train and experience so many adventures that can only be discovered in the precious in-between moments of life. Also I kept hearing that May is supposed to be the worst hiking month for Patagonia. No snow. And no green. My roommates believed that too. So far, however, I’ve had colors of white, green, brown, yellow, orange and red. Fog and rain were predicted for the next few days in late autumn. And I just thought: Great. So I will see gray as well.

On the next day there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. Bright sunshine. If only my roommates would have known. So on the first day I hiked a total of 25km around the Mt. Fitzroy glacier lagoon. For the second day the hike to Cerro Torre was just around the corner. And when I left El Chalten at six in the morning, a dog was already waiting at the hiking trail. Not just to greet me. But to accompany me. Even after one hour he was still there walking next to me. Who could blame him? The trail was like a picture book. I even drank from the small river that meanders through the colorful valley. Soft moss is the perfect break pad. Until a loud noise intervened.

The hammering got louder and louder. That must be a woodpecker! But so loud? I followed the sound and saw the reason. A Magellanic woodpecker. With 40cm the biggest woodpecker in the world. I wasn’t used to those dimensions coming from Europe. Great time for taking a break. I fell softly down onto the moss with my sandwich, apple and bottle of water. The dog didn’t mind either. With the same enthusiasm we watched how Mr. Woodpecker was building his new apartment. Wich hidden secret is behind that head anatomy to dampen those violent concussions for the woodpeckers brain? And why don’t his eyes fall out during hammering?

And then suddenly two hikers were approaching quickly from the right and speaking loudly. I jumped up and enthusiastically pointed at the 40cm big wonder of nature. Actually, I thought that they would slow down and become quieter. But while breathing heavily due to their high pace they just took out their camera – * click * – and were already gone. I was speechless. Where are all these people rushing to? Is this hike just about the Cerro Torre?

Not just in professional life. Even when traveling, many people are so highly concerned with reaching a destination, that they actually eliminate the distance between the locations. Actually they make both ends of the trip the same place. And if we eliminate the distance, we also eliminate the journey. Same when dancing. You don’t aim at a particular spot in the room. The whole point of the dancing is to dance. Same for people who live just to retire. Having savings when you’re 65 but go rot in a senior citizen’s home with no energy left. Because we simply cheated ourselves the whole way down the line. Because we thought of a purpose at the end of our life so the whole thing was about getting to that end. While we are missing the point the whole way along. Whatever we chase, if it is success, heaven or the weather. Instead of cheating ourselves all the time, we should pay attention to just where we are.

As for me: I already arrived. I made it. Until here. Right in front of the woodpecker. Without knowing beforehand if and when that would be the case. Very pleasant feeling. I can strongly recommend everyone to stay here for a while instead of rushing back and forth. Then one day we can maybe make it from human goings, from human doings and human thinkings to human beings. When I came back to the hotel totally happy at dusk, I saw the same two hikers again. They said: “The Cerro Torre was really nice. But the hike was really boring.” Well, what should I add now. By the way, the foreign dog accompanied me over the whole entire day’s distance of 25km until I was safely back home in the village…