Starting off in Torres. We saw condors here and guanaco's and Nandu (or Rhea) which are all awesome but hard to photograph. We did capture some parrots hanging out just below a windy pass. We did not expect to see these colorful birds this far south. They were very chatty and loud about it.
This bumble bee was not in the best shape. We did see loads of healthy ones buzzing around flowers. The orange color was brilliant.
Lou was always finding new catepillars on him or his backpack. He found several of this kind. Hard to tell it is an insect and not a stick until it moves.
Now to Parque nacional los glaciares. The bird in the tree is called a Cara cara. They have red faces and really flat heads. They were all over the place.
Our last day of hiking in the park was a little drizzly but it brought out the amphibians. This sapo was hoping across the trail as we passed a set of lakes, real cute.
I adore frogs and toads. If this whole marine biology thing doesnt work out maybe I'll open up a store and call it EL SAPO MAS GUAPO. It is a fun phrase to say.This catepillar had a lot of attitude, and was very curious about the camera. Every time I got close to take his picture he lifted up his front half to investigate.
In Torres we saw female Magellanic wood peckers in some nasty weather. In Glacier we got to see a lot more of them. They are pretty big and the males are easy to pick out because of their bright red heads. They have a distictive call that allowed us to distinguish them from other birds even when we couldn't see them. The yellow eye is also diagnostic.
Loco Parque Tantauco. Sorry to say we did not photograph the leeches for those of you that were hoping for that one. First the most famous critter we caught on film is the Rana de Darwin. We looked for many days for this one and were shoked when we saw our first and discovered it was about 1/5 the size we had been looking for. In the many swamps we crossed we started to notice gazzilions of small tadpoles too. 
The plants in the photo below with red fringes are carnivorous. There is one in the top right of the photo and a few jsut to the left of the frogs front leg. Also check out the nose on this rana, very pointy.
We saw every major animal group in Tantauco, fish, mammals, loads of birds, insects, amphibians, and reptiles! This lizard was quite colorful. We also saw the pudu in Tantauco, no photos due to their flighty nature. The trail was covered in their footprints as well as sign from both the fox and wild cat that live in Souther Chiloe. Before we could get any good photos of the many birds we saw in the park the camera battery died, which was unfortunate because one of the species was curious to a falt and more than once hopped up on our shoes.
Last, and the biggest, the Andean Condor. We saw our fair share of these birds at pretty close range during our last hike in Aconcagua park (more on that trip later). When you hike up to altitude in the Andeas the Condors are right there to greet you. I tried to get a better photo, we definately saw many much closer than this, but somehow they managed to sneak up on us over and over again. Carried by the thermals they are constantly moving. We were continually impressed with how long we could watch them and never see them flap their wings. In fact, I don't remember seeing any of the many condors we saw flap their wings once.
We went by the coast while we were visiting my Chilean family. We made a stop to buy some shellfish empanadas and sitting in front of the store was this line of pelicans. Pelicans might be my most favorite bird. They are goofy and awkward, but when they take flight over the water incredible elegant, I love that.
So, now we are back in the states and in the Portland until mid-monthish. We are going over maps and fine tuning a few gear items after our experiences in Patagonia. I will do my best to keep the blog updated as we hike across the divide. We are excited to get on the trail and looking forward to having some of our friends join us during the journey.
