The Tour of the Condors

When I was 21, Paul McSorley told me about Rio Turbio. McSorley, a Patagonian veteran with a half-dozen tr ips under his belt, had seen a photo of the val ley in the old Frey Hut outside Bariloche, Argentina. “Where’s that? ” he asked the locals at the hut. Notoriously tight-lipped to outsiders, the Argentines refused to tel l McSorley. But, blessed with a char ismatic, gregar ious nature, f luent Spanish, and perhaps a bottle of licor ice-f lavoured booze cal led Fernet, he eventual ly pr ied it out of them. The mythica l Turbio Va l ley was f i r st explored in ear nest by Switzerland ’s Pedro Lutti and involved wine-guzzling (Argentine cowboys), endless bushwhacking