Chica Condorera...

This is the Chica condorera.
(It´s a big lump of rock.)

The condors sit on ledges on the leeward side of the rock to avoid the bad weather.
There are a bunch of condors sitting on the rock right now ... trust me, they´re there.





The snows are just starting.
Winter is setting in.
It´s very, VERY cold.

Hairy Armidillo...

So while I was sitting quietly watching condors, this little critter came and said hello.



Fact: Hairy Armidillos LOVE chocolate.
(This guy crawled right into my backpack to get at a choccie bar.)

2 Weeks with the Condors...

So I´ve just spent 2 weeks looking at Condors at a big old ranch-farm type place called Estancia Perito Moreno. It is owned by some uber rich Swiss guy who made his money in Chocolate. (True story). He runs a few sheep and cows on the place, but his main interest is keeping it as a game preserve. He comes out from Switzerland for 10 days every year to go a-deer huntin´.

The estancia is a special place because it contains a bunch of condoreras. In the winter the condors move out of the Andes and come down onto the Cordillera where they sit out the worst of the weather. We monitored the condor numbers and some aspects of their behaviour from hides setup near these condoreras.















So here I am sitting in one of the hides.
(It´s very cold.)
A few days after this photo was taken the big rains came and flooded the hide.
Yuk.