Oscar

The small store where we bought our salami sandwiches the morning of the hike was owned by a nice man with a mustache named Oscar.

We didn't know at first of course, but after 5 minutes of morning conversation he gave each of us one of his books. He was also a writer and had published his own book! In Spanish!

I guess we made a good impression that morning when we came into his store. I went in first with my smile (like always) even with the terrible weather outside and Ronald used his outgoing charm to talk to the man in his broken Spanish.

We told him we were headed up the mountain and we were here from Holland and from the US. I think he's got a special something for travelers from faraway places.

We spoke to him several more times after our hike and before we left El Chalten and that's when he told us that he his daughter had gone a year abroad and come back a different girl. She now owned several businesses in the town including the restaurant that was across the street.

He was just a super nice guy. He gave us free candy and a free empanada too. Ronald brought him some candy he brought from Holland called "drops" or something close to that as a thank you gift. We watched some German football with him in his little store for a while too.

We told him it would take a long time for us to read his work to give him comments. He gave us 1 year. Hehe