A young condor crashed on its maiden flight just south of Leymebamba, near Chachapoyas in northern Peru. The condor maybe 12 months old left the high limestone cliffs where it had hatched and landed heavily in a farmers field. The farmer offered to sell it otherwise he would eat it - condor's heart pickled in local rum makes you braver. Friends from Kentipata, an exclusive place to stay surrounded by zillions of hummingbirds, rescued the condor from the death sentence.
Condorcito has he became known was in a sorry state. More than anything he needed food, a rest and launch site to get back to his cliff. So Condorcito was put in a cage and given steak. Meanwhile the authorities had found out about the bird and wanted to take him away to be rehabilitated. The problem with their plan was to take the bird 100s of miles away, yet where Condorcito comes from, the condor population is small and so it was imperative that he wasn't taken out of the area. While Condorcito gulped down steak a war of paper and words were being fought. In the end reason won through and the permission for his release in the Leymebamba granted.
On the 18th December 2009, in a specially made cage Condorcito was carried by four men, 550m up the steep forested gorge to a height of 3100m. There we had to wait for almost 5 hours for the rain to clear before allowing Condorcito out. It was a magic moment when he finally walked out of his box, where we stretched out his wings. He needed some help to get his wings fully stretched and exercised. After 1 hour - he still hadn't flown.
On the 19th December the men climbed the gorge again to where Condorcito had spent the night under an overhang in his cage. They then made a better launch site at the top of a cliff overlooking the birds nesting site. The parent birds came in to view and with two flaps of his wings Condorcito was over the gorge and flying.
Since then Condorcito has been seen on numerous ocassion still with his parents.
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