Chilean Stone: Esteros de Iberá

We went to the middle of nowhere, we made it back, and it was amazing.

On the 15th, we woke up early and caught a bus down to the city of Posadas. The bus took a while, but they did give everyone a small cup of chocolate liquer; only in Argentina. We ended up getting there in the afternoon, but after that, we weren´t too sure how to procede and get all the way to the town of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini. Colonia is a town of 600 people in the middle of the National Reserve Esteros de Iberá, and it is difficult to get to. There is one bus a day that goes there, but from the other direction than Posadas, and it would take a day and a half to get there. I spent about an hour on the phone, and miraculously we were able to hire a pickup truck to take us down the 150 mile long dirt road to the town. We got into the town at about 10:00 pm, and we were taken to a cheap, but very nice, hostel to stay in. The owner made us dinner, and we slept very well that night.

On the 16th, I got up earlier than the other two because I wanted to go birding a little before breakfast. I saw a lot of great birds including a Southern Screamer, Red-crested Cardinals, and Maguari Stork. Esteros de Iberá is one of the largest wetlands in South America, and the protected area of it is 13,000 square kilometers. After breakfast, the three of us went out on a two-hour boat ride into the marshes. We got really close to a lot of animals including lots of caimans and capybaras. I´ll upload a video later of me chasing a capybara, they´re deceptively fast. After the boat ride and lunch, we went on a walk around the trails of the park, and saw a few more interesting things, but nothing too crazy. I think all the animals were pretty shut down because today is the coldest day in the region in ten years. We then went to a fun little antique shop in town, and the owner talked our ear off. After another great dinner cooked by our hostess, we got to bed nice and early.

17th - I went birding again a little before breakfast, but it was raining today, and there wasn´t too much out and about. We lucked out again and got a pickup truck ride down south to Mercedes and it only cost about $20 per person for a two hour drive. We left at lunch time, and the scenery on the way was beautiful. The park is enormous, and it´s just long stretches of wet grassland to the horizon in every direction. There´s trees that dot the landscape every once in a while. The most exciting part of the ride was the Greater Rheas that we saw on the way down. There were quite a few, and I asked to stop for a little while to watch them. After arriving in Mercedes, we went gift shopping for a little while, and now we´re waiting for our bus down to Buenos Aires. We leave at 8 and will get there at 6 in the morning. The internet is slow here, so I´ll post pictures later.