Andean Condor - better from afar

I saw 3 condors while hiking in the Peruvian Andes - they were very high so I didn't see much, even with my field glasses.  Maybe just as well, as I was so short of breath that had one circled me, I would have assumed it was casing me out for dinner.  Not to mention, as majestic as they are in flight, they look very like the vultures they are, up close.

At Machu Picchu, I learned that the Condor was revered as a messenger to the Gods as they flew so high.  And like Zoroastrians and Tibetan Sky Burial, the bodies of the deceased were put out for Condors, in the belief that the person's soul would be delivered to the afterlife.