Days of Wine and Raptors at Mexico’s El Cielo Resort and Winery

Long shadows are spreading across the vineyards of the El Cielo Resort and Winery, setting its terra-cotta villas aglow.

Cassiopea eats lunch on the author's arm at El Cielo Resort and Winery in northern Baja California, Mexico. Photo courtesy of Jim Farber

The sun is beginning to set over northern Baja California’s Valle de Guadalupe—the Napa Valley of Mexico. Long shadows are spreading across the vineyards of the El Cielo Resort and Winery, setting its terra-cotta villas aglow.

High above the long rows of grapevines, a large hawk with red-tinged feathers is making lazy circles in the sky. Then her keen eyes spot one of the endemic rodents that pose a constant threat to a rich harvest. Wings folded, she drives and rises with her dying prey clutched firmly in her razor-sharp talons.