A-C-B: A Damp Expedition

October 23rd was a day when we wouldn't be traveling to a new hotel; instead, it was an expedition aimed at Los Cardones National Park. It had rained overnight, and the outlook for today was uncertain, so Joan and I donned our rainpants and jacket.  We had barely left the Hotel del Dique when Carlos spotted a burrowing owl on a wire.

Who are you looking at?

After heading north to El Carril we turned west on Highway 33 and began a winding climb into the mountains.

Switchbacks galore.

Rain showers commenced. At our first stop, for birding, the pavement was still in good shape.

The opposite lane is higher up.

We scrambled around in the drainage, hoping that the blooms would draw hummingbirds or other visitors.

Apparently this wasn't a good location today, and we moved on. At the second stop we had more luck. Our first sighting was probably a cream-backed woodpecker,

although there are a few other species that look similar from a distance, at least to my inexperienced eye. This sayaca tanager refused to return to its nest until we withdrew. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

It's carrying something in its bill.

Not such a good picture, but here's a golden-billed saltator. The view was better through binoculars!

We began a more serious ascent, with switchbacks more frequent, the valley bottom dropping further and further below the road, and constant rain. We didn't make any out-of-the-car stops until we reached a point where we escaped the precipitation, but the wind was still howling.

Looking upstream from a bridge.

The valley floor was streaked with stone walls, to divert and slow the descent of floodwaters, reducing and redirecting erosion.

A small settlement was squeezed between the road and the mountain.

Llamas in the courtyard.

Joan spotted a group of Andean condors circling and landing on the ridgeline opposite. Even with binoculars, it was difficult to see detail, but there was at least one juvenile just hanging out on what appeared to be a nearly vertical rock face.

You can't see them in the photo, but that's the ridge.

The route became largely unpaved; at one point we passed a road grader. More, heavier showers caught up with us, making bird-watching pointless. Carlos was concerned about washouts and rockfalls on our way back, given the heavy rains. One switchback in particular was at the foot of a sloped valley holding waves of dark, slate-colored debris. It had spilled into the road before. Carlos explained that, because of the lack of alternate routes across the mountains, if a slide covered the road behind us, getting back to the hotel would mean a detour of at least 8 hours, including almost all of yesterday's drive. Joan and I agreed that the best course was to turn around, forgoing a quick visit to the Parque Nacional Los Cardones.

We arrived back at the hotel by 4:30pm, which gave me a chance to catch up on the notes I jot down on trips to refresh my memory when writing these blog entries. There was no wine less than a full bottle at dinner, so I tried a Salta beer. I'm not a beer drinker but today it worked just fine.