I had seen a variety of forests from tropical to temperate and those in-between but none has the fairy tales look like this one in Bahia Onelli in Argentina. This a temperate deciduous forests where the leaves change colors and drop with the seasons.
As I entered the forest I saw what looked as persimmons but they happened to be the fruiting bodies of parasitic fungi that grow out a living tree. I am no botanist but they seem to be related to the mistletoe typical of hour forests. These fruiting bodies are about the size of limes.
This forest is near a glacial lake and I happened to be take a shot of this kingfisher. These birds are so similar to the woodpeckers that I wonder what evolved first: the kingfisher or the woodpecker?
And here we are, the enchanted forest. Since I was there in May during fall season, yes, since Argentina is in the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed. Some of the trees have lost the leaves; these were roundish and about an inch in diameter.
The photo above is just a crop of the previous one to give you a closer view of the pond and the trees. There were lots of dead trees just lying all over forest floor that looks as hurricane or tornado damage.
This wonderful waterfall was nearby, I spent some time admiring the contrast of the leaves against the falling war and taking various photos. While here I saw an Andean Condor flying over but regardless of its size, it was too far to get a decent image. Will love to visit there in the spring. I will not bore with more blogs regarding Argentina until I return there sometime in a future spring. Stay tune for more blogs about my favorite Continent coming soon.
