The Biggest Bird You'll Ever See?

We'd seen several condors before on our trip, most notably during our trek towards Machu Picchu and several around El Chaltén, but never close enough to really appreciate their size. This time, while walking early in the morning, all alone in the Quebrada del Condorito national park, we saw two figures on a nearby hill. At first, we thought they were two more people, detracting from our uniqueness, but then they spread their wings and took off! They were enormous. They can have a wingspan of up to 3.3m and weigh up to 15kg.

Condor flying overhead at Quebrada del Condorito

This wasn't our last encounter with condors for the day. When we reached the quebrada (canyon), we saw several more circling overhead and some landing on the opposite cliff. Then, a group of about 15-20 decided to pass right above us before flying into the distance. It was an incredible experience to see them swoop over us one by one before disappearing behind the mountain.

The Quebrada del Condorito

The national park was our highlight of our time in and around Córdoba, Argentina's second city. We liked the city itself - it's an old colonial city and is home to our final World Heritage Site for Argentina. Of course, it was another Jesuit mission. We did a short tour around the church, and discovered that the surrounding buildings are home to the country's oldest university. As a major university city, it was home to many of the 'Disappeared' - those who were killed by the military dictatorship during the '70s and '80s.

The entrance to the Jesuit church

After a lot of time sitting in cars and wine tasting, we wanted to do some hiking, and handily there are several small mountain ranges just outside Córdoba - the Sierras. We visited the small town of Capilla del Monte in the Sierras Chicas (Small Sierras), home to Uritorco Hill. This was perfect for our needs - a day long hike with pleasant views over the town and the nearby reservoir. Before we arrived, we hadn't done much more research than that, and we soon found that the town is full of UFO spotters, 'magical' rocks and plastic pyramids full of 'mysteries'. In 1986, a scorched patch of ground was found and this was subsequently blamed on aliens. You can now watch some incredibly unrealistic videos online, or buy plenty of little green man dolls.

A 'mystical' pyramid in Capilla del Monte

After Córdoba, we set off for our final country on this continent - Uruguay. We'll stop in a couple of places on the way to break up the journey, but not spend much time there, before crossing the border to Fray Bentos.

Arequipa and Trekking the Colca Canyon

We've spent the last few days sightseeing in the old colonial city of Arequipa before getting out of the city for some trekking in the nearby (only 6 bus hours away!) Colca Canyon.

The cathedral in the main square in Arequipa

Arequipa - more Jesuit churches

Arequipa itself has a very pretty centre, mostly constructed from sillar - a white stone taken from the three volcanoes overlooking the city. There are ornate churches, a huge cathedral and a frozen mummy of a 12 - 14 year old girl called Juanita. It felt a lot like Sucre, in Bolivia, to us. Apart from Juanita.

Juanita was an Incan sacrifice to one of their mountain gods. It would have been a great honour to her to accompany the priests to the freezing summit to offer herself to appease the gods that were causing the nearby volcano to erupt. Preserved in nearly perfect condition she was found in 1996, ironically due to another nearby volcano erupting and melting her icy tomb. She has been on display ever since, and it's a very moving experience to come face to face with her in the museum.





One of our favourite things was spending an afternoon wandering around the picture-perfect Santa Catalina Convent. The convent occupies a whole block in the city and has its own interior streets and cloisters - a quiet island cut off from the busy streets outside. It was constructed in 1579, and there is still a section where a few nuns live in seclusion today, as in days gone by.

The quiet streets of the Santa Catalina convent

Running through Arequipa is the Chili River, which is well known for its whitewater. We spent half a day on the river - Jo for her first time in a raft and me kayaking. We both really enjoyed it - the rapids were continuous class III with little respite, with a class IV in the middle. It was great for me to be back in a kayak on whitewater again, for the first time on this trip, and Jo found the raft to be a good level of fun and fright.

Running the Chili River

From Arequipa we made our way to the Colca Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world. The deepest is another few hours away by bus, and is very difficult to explore properly without paying a lot of money for a tour and a guide. The Colca Canyon is a lot more visited by people doing day trips from Arequipa to a great viewpoint for seeing condors. We skipped this, and continued further along the road to get closer to the canyon.

The Oasis of Sangalle at the bottom of the Colca Canyon

We spent three days trekking. The first was spent gradually descending down the steep wall to Llahuar where we were rewarded with (almost) hot springs to soak our aching muscles. There, we met a great group of people to continue for a full day along (with a lot of up and down) the Colca River at the base of the canyon to San Juan de Chuccho. From our basic lodgings there we could see the daunting ascent for the following day - we'd be climbing over 1000m back up to the trek's starting point. We hadn't anticipated that the bit we could see would be the easiest part of the climb - it turned out that part only took an hour. The next two hours were even steeper and we were exhausted by the time we reached the top.

Our smiling group, before the exhausting ascent

We did make the top in time to catch the bus back to Arequipa. Perhaps 6 hours in a bus isn't the best thing for stiff legs after such a climb, but we're moving on again and will take a night bus tonight to the heart of the Inca empire - Cusco.

Dinosaurs and The Welsh

Since entering Patagonia, we've been spending our time in towns all founded by Welsh immigrants in the mid-1800s. We've visited Puerto Madryn, Trelew and Gaiman and there are many other towns whose names betray their Welsh heritage. One of the other things Patagonia is famous for is its fossils, particularly dinosaurs. Maybe the Welsh knew they would one day be living in this land when they put a dragon on their flag.

The largest femur ever?

Trelew is the largest town in the valley of the River Chubut, and is home to an excellent palaeontological museum. The large collection of fossils is well laid out in reverse chronological order, starting with extinct mammals, before moving backwards to Patagonian marsupials, dinosaurs, huge ammonites and, finally, 900 million year old bacteria. The real highlight, however, is the bones from the recently discovered largest dinosaur ever found. Palaeontologists there are still working on the bones from the 40m long, 75+ ton titanosaur - the bones are so huge that I could barely reach the top of the femur.

Fossils across the desert-like plain near Gaiman

From Trelew, we made our way to Gaiman, a much smaller town. Close by is another palaeontological park, with a walk through the arid, desert-like landscape that was full of fossils still in situ. We really enjoyed seeing 25 million year old dolphins and more recent fossils of marine animals as we walked upwards through the layers. When we got towards the top of a cliff, a lone condor was circling very closely above us. Suddenly, in the not too far distance, a column of 11 more condors took to the air and also started circling us and swooping quite low above our heads. We promptly decided to descend again, further from their nest.

A condor swooping down to get us

Gaiman was founded by the Welsh at a location suggested by the native Tehuelche people, and is the only town here with an indigenous name. The Welsh, surprisingly for colonists and perhaps uniquely across the world, had a friendly and cooperative relationship with the locals. The town is now famous for its Welsh teahouses, and we enjoyed a sumptious collection of scones and cakes. There were so many that we took half of them away with us for a second lunch the next day.

Jo trying her best to eat all of the cakes

 For now though, we're returning from the deep past and on to more contemporary wildlife.