Fishing and Viewing Condors in Argentina

Today, we went fishing and we viewed the Condors.

We drove through Bariloche for around an hour, until we came to a small area where we parked. We got out and saw the boats that we would be fishing in. We met our guides: Mario and Eduardo and got in the boats.We pushed the boats out onto the fast flowing river and sat in our seats, peacefully flowing along. The water here was almost crystal clear, so we could see dozens of fish swimming around below us. We began to cast our lines out and then reel them back in. After a while of not being able to catch anything, we decided to try to fly-fish. Because the water was way too deep, we had to fly fish from our boat. We picked up the rod, and whipped it around in the air, until we cast it 50 feet away. Unlike the normal fishing where we couldn’t catch anything, most of us were able to catch a few fish. Except dad, who didn’t have any luck fishing. We had a great time fishing in the crystal clear, but freezing waters of Bariloche.
After fishing, we got out of our boats and walked onto the dock up to a restaurant. While eating lunch, we met our Condor guide Christian. We listened to a small presentation about the Condors, and then watched a small clip from a movie. Some facts about Condors:They have a wingspan of three meters (9’9’’). They weigh 32 pounds when they are an adult. (Almost as much as a small dog!) When they are a chick, they have brown feathers, so they can camouflage with the rocks, then when they become an adult, their feathers turn black and white.Female Condors have red eyes, and the males have a small tuft of feathers behind their head. In one day, a Condor can travel 350 kilometers! (217 miles) The Andean Condors are a very close relative of the California Condor, and Condors are also very closely related to vultures, just a ton bigger. We learned that the commercial for Destiny (the PlayStation game) was filmed here! Condors have a pouch that can hold parts of their kill to save or to bring back for their chicks. Condors live a very long life, nearly 60-75 years! We finished our lunch and headed out to look for Condors. We walked for around 15 minutes, until we came to a sight where all theCondors should’ve been. Sadly, none of them wanted to be seen. Unlike most birds who live in trees, Condors live in the rocks and make nests inside of small carved our holes. Condors are so big and clumsy, that if they tried to land on a tree, they’d either break the branch, or miss and fall. When we walked, we kept kicking up dust, which we actually learned was ash. The entire path was made out of ash from the last volcano eruption. When the volcano erupted, there was nearly 10 cm of ash covering the ground! It would’ve been terrible with that much ash, it would be in your mouth, eyes and nose! We only got to see a couple Condors that were way off in the distance, but we still had a great time walking through the mountains in Bariloche, Argentina!