Argentina
November 6-29, 2009
November 19: Valle Encantada: Lunch at the Condor Roost
Our choice for a lunch picnic spot was great... amazing rock formations, right next to the river, and as we looked up... CONDORS! In fact, a whole condor roost right in the cliffs. We ate our sandwiches while watching the birds high up in the sky. Rubby was done quickly and went to explore some of the cool rock formations, especially the volcanic basalt columns. It was a fun little stop for the day.
Some close-up views of the rock formations... hey, are those horizontal basalt columns up top?!
A 'castle' on top of the hill.
Mmmmm, Christopher is enjoying his ham and cheese sandwich.
What a great picnic spot!
Across the river we can see what look like little caves high up in the rocks.
And there's also a huge cliff across the river from our picnic spot... what are all those white spots on it?!
The white spots are condor poo... and there's the condor!
If we hadn't stopped here to picnic, we would never have realized there was a condor roost here!
It was amazing seeing the condors flying around the rock formations.
They were flying so high that it was hard to get a good picture... here's as close as our camera could get.
A zoom-in on the condor rookery... it's hard to tell but it looks like there are some condors perched on the rocks.
A closer look at the rock formations.
It's too bad we couldn't find any information in our guidebook,
online or at any tourist info places about how these were formed!
While the kids finished their lunch, Rubby went climbing and exploring.
He's the king of the castle...!
And down there are the hungry rascals!
Lots of nooks and crannies... Rubby could have spent hours exploring!
Horizontal basalt columns.
Some of the rock formations look ready to tip over at any time.
Some flower shots.
A type of yellow lady's slipper.
A view across the Rio Traful just north of Confluencia.
A picture taken through a rock archway.
Dessert time! Pastry filled with dulce de leche. Mmmmmm!
Samantha admiring the beautiful yellow flowers on the bushes.
Time to head back to the car.
Bye condors!
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