In an effort to take an easier hike, headed back to Estancia Quinta, this time hiking up to the point above the ranger station, Mirador de las Aguilas, which looks south to Lake Viedma. Once up, about a 40 minute climb, we scouted out the area, and looked for traces of a track that would lead us downhill and towards the main gate entrance of Estancia Quinta. Without much difficulty, we scrambled our way through the prickly brush and clumps of windswept grass, and zigzagged our way downhill, following occasional vestiges of path. At the main gate to the Estancia Quinta we followed the path marked Bahia Tunel, which is quite clear until one clears the second hill. From there it is largely hit or miss as far as following a trail, but the lake looms in the distance, a streak of turquoise under the distant mountains, so there isn't much problem with getting lost.
Along the way we spotted a beautiful and largely red bird, which sat still for a while, but was simply too far to photograph properly. Lots of smaller meadowlarks chirped around us, and eventually there were clumps of greenery, from which we flushed a large hare, and later still we were spellbound when we thought—both of us!—that we’d spotted an Andean deer(huemul), but we never got close enough to actually confirm our sighting, and eventually decided it must have been a calf or small horse. Besides copious amounts of dried cow manure, we also found the corpse of a cow, bone dry as opposed to actively decomposing—but already with sets of completely picked clean ribs. A mite gruesome. Later still—the trail is quite a bit longer than it originally appears—we were irked by teros, loud screeching and ominous overhead flying making us wonder if we should steer away from them as they might have young or a nest in the area. Just prior to reaching the road that leads to the small harbor from which a boat takes passengers to the Viedma Glacier, we had to climb the fence, as there was no other way out. We walked about another kilometer or so down the road and reached the uninteresting harbor where we had our lunch. This was one hike in which the views along the walk were far superior to the endpoint.
We returned a similar route, having left a stone on the fence post to mark our crossing. A wandering horse kept us company for part of the way. Once back at the entrance to the Estancia Quinta we walked the road back to the main highway (Ruta 23), where we were thrilled to see a pair of soaring condors, who put on a graceful performance, twisting, turning, floating and soaring high and low in the valley. Initially they were quite close, over the Rio de las Vueltas, but ultimately they were far, far away, dipping in and out of sight, last letting themselves be seen by us set up against the upper reaches of Mt. Fitzroy.
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