IIn 2009 Margie and I covered some 11,000 kilometres travelling overland through South America.  With a tent as a home and inspired by the amusing wildlife-gathering expeditions of Gerald Durrell, we explored the wilds of Patagonia, following the footsteps of my father.  In the late twenties and thirties, Dad spent an adventurous ten years working on large British and Argentine sheep and cattle estancias.
Journeying down beside the rugged Andean Cordillera is some of the most spectacular and beautiful scenery in the world, still relatively undiscovered by foreign travellers.  Only the most resolute adventurers, who diverge willingly from the beaten path, chance the reward of wild and magnificent panoramas and the unique wildlife that this harsh and pristine region has to reveal.
One of the most stunning massifs associated with the Andean chain can be seen in the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia and which I have set as the backdrop for this drawing of a cuadrilla of guanacos.  Related to the camel, these animals are quite prolific on the plains and high country of Argentine and Chile.  We saw many during our travels.  In this scene the dominant herd male menacingly approaches a young female who rises from the prone position and counters the intimidation with a typical threat posture of ears back and mouth open.  An unconcerned female chews her cud while another looks on.  High above, an Andean condor, the world's largest flying bird, soars on the rising thermals to survey the altiplano for carcasses to scavenge.