More giant wetlands
Trip Start
Dec 30, 2007
1
3
50
Trip End
Jun 22, 2008
Colonia Pellegrini,
Argentina
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Up until now we had been finding Argentina pretty good to travel in. People had been at the information offices and were actually helpful and services ran as promised. But getting to Esteros del Ibera, an enormous wildlife rich wetland, was another story. And a long one.
I asked at the terminal in Iguazu 'how do I get to Mercedes?' Everyone recommended a ticket to Corrientes from where I could get a ticket to Mercedes. But, so I understood, I had to be in Mercedes by12 the next day to get the only bus to Colonia Pellegrini. Nobody knew anything about that except one man who said there was a bus going to Mercedes at 7.45, and it would take four hours. Fine timing, but he also said that there were plenty of buses from Mercedes to CP which was quite close. All this meant a night in expensive Corrientes which reduces the Lonely Planet author to foul language
And again
. So we psyched ourselves up and took the plunge, getting into Corrientes at dusk. We sent Nancy across the road to talk to the hotels while I investigated buses. It turns out that we could get half a dozen buses to Mercedes that night. We decided to do that to avoid the risk of missing our one bus, and in the belief that we could even get an earlier bus that allegedly left at 8am for CP and so stop waiting around. It would mean spending the night on buses and at terminals. So we did. We left the bustling bus station at Corrientes on the worst bus we have met in South America so far (interior tatty, water not running, functionality of toilet uncertain - but I am sure that we have plenty worse in store, and it says a lot about the high quality of the buses here). At around 4am we reached the tiny town of Chito which was a hive of activity. Roadside stores open, queues of people. A real contrast to BA. Soon after we arrived at the very busy station at Mercedes. It was full of people. Many ticket stalls were open. But no one would sell us a ticket to CP. We were too tired to figure it out and went to sleep in the corner. We were confused. The Book sad buses at 8am and12pm. The ticket office said just one bus at 1pm. He denied that they sold them although the sign said that they did. The Youth Hostel sign said it left at 12.30. The company that was supposed to go to CP wasn't open.Perhaps it would be clearer in the morning? Not really
Capybara
. Nothing went to CP at 8am. But the ticket office did finally open and sent me to their well hidden sister ticket office around the block. It told me that there was only one and it left at 1pm, but the price was more than that quoted by the minivan that arrived in Mercedes from CP. In it left at 12ish, because it was just a land rover and it was full, but with us on it.People told us that the confusion is because a lot of services aren't running because of a gaucho (cowboy) festival, but I am not sure I believe it. I suspect chaos reigns full time here. But it does explain why Mercedes was so busy, and why the were so many people wandering around with peculiar shallow-crowned hats and bright blue trousers and shirts. They venerate a character called Gaucho Gil here, who defected from an army in the 19th century and lived on the run for a couple of years before being hanged, supposedly even though a pardon had been issued. The festival coincides with the anniversary of his death on 8 January. Informal shrines may be found all over the country, but he is especially big in Corrientes province, where he deserted.
But we did finally get here. Was it worth it? Well ...
First, some context
Deer
. This is a substitute for Brazil's Pantanal which we reluctantly decided we couldn't get to on this trip. The Book says Ibera is as good or better. So there were some expectations to meet.I doubt that it is as good as the Pantanal. There were plenty of birds but in sheer volume we saw more, lots more, in Los Llanos. There are lots of mammals here though - deer, many capybara (the worlds largest rodent), various foxes, the maned wolf,otters.
Iberas means bright water, and the lake is so still and reflects the sky so faithfully that where land is out of sight there is no horizon. Sunset is amazing. It was declared a park in 1983 and covers 34,000 km sq and has apparently been effective in resurrecting some threatened species despite ongoing poaching.
We liked it here. The lake is beautiful, the town very peaceful and the wildlife so unwary that you can be within a meter of a grazing capybara, practically pat a caiman, and have very close encounters with the slightly more flighty deer. We saw monkeys, another howler variation, lots of caiman and capybara including a family group of around 20 animals hanging around the interpretation centre, 3 species of deer, lots of birds and a dead armadillo
heron
. There were many caiman including one minding her nest. We got a tip off for a place where otters 'always'' are too late to investigate. The strangest of our sightings was an amphibious caterpillar swimming sinuously in the middle of a channel and appearing perfectly happy despite its very bedraggled appearance.There is plenty of small wildlife around town too. The most oppressive is the chicharra, an incredibly noisy insect like a cicada that thrives here. There is also an enormous toad, the biggest amphibian in Argentina, and he hung around too, presumably to eat the chicharras. No risk of going hungry there. We had a beautiful green frog in our bathroom one morning, and a handsome chocolate frog clung tenaciously to the poling pole on the boat the same morning.
It is very quiet - no risk of crowds at all - and would be a great place to spend a week if you had the time. So yes, certainly worth it but not a complete substitute for the Pantanal.
