Trekking in El Chalten - Day 4: Lago Capri and Loma del Pliegue Tumbado

Samuel and I took advantage of the wonderful weather and Eric’s recommendation about the beautiful lakes to walk to Lago Capri. I was not prepared for the beauty of the walk there and back - it exceeded expectations! The river valley, and open vegetation at the beginning of the walk afforded us a view of a condor circling above. Eager tourists with tripods and expensive cameras madly photographed while expostulating in what ever their native language was. This was matched when we later saw a red headed woodpecker and a black and white bird, deep within the forest. Without the technology we were not able to take as professional pictures. So much for the wild life, we also took in a lovely, uninterrupted view of Mt Fitzroy and enjoyed a small break at Lago Capri, which lived up to Eric’s description of its merits.

Eric headed out in the other direction, walking up Loma del Pliegue Tumbado and running back to town. The climb was 1100m (400m up to 1500m above sea level) and the views from the summit were breathtaking (sorry no camera on this journey). The trail down from just below the summit pyramid was pretty smooth so it made for a great downhill run. All up just under three hours of very hard exercise!

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