Reserva Estero del Ibera
Trip Start
Sep 11, 2008
1
81
87
Trip End
Jun 05, 2009
Carlos Pellegrini,
Litoral,
Argentina
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Capybara
. Next day we set off at lunchtime in the local bus that goes the 120km to Colonia Carlos Pellegrini in the Reserva Estero de Ibera. It wasnīt so much a bus as an ancient Ford Transit minibus with a shattered windscreen, comfortable enough but after a while we noticed the exhaust somehow seemed to be directing the fumes inside and we started to choke. Only another two hours though!!! When we got there we dropped the rucksacks at one of the few hostels there. We all had the same dorm which we shared with what can only be described as a cloud of mosquitoes. We went straight out on a boat trip of the lake next to the village. I had expected on the trip, apart from a few birds, maybe we would see a caiman (a small South American crocodile) and a capybara, the worlds largest rodent. Within minutes we were within a few feet of huge families of capybaras, chilling by the waterside next to loads of caimans. We also saw a marsh deer, giant birds called screamers, rheas which look like ostriches, vultures and countless other species of birds we canīt remember the names of. We saw a great sunset and had a tasty dinner at the hostel although it was a while before we realised the starter wasnīt a starter but the main course. Cristoph and Tijs taught us a Belgian card game called Truuf which we had an epic battle of.
Next morning after a skimpy breakfast we went horse riding. Unlike last time we rode a horse, Lucy got the old nag and quickly had to have a whip fashioned from a twig for her
Caiman
. We went out of the village, down a track, saw a few birds and a dead cow killed by a snake then turned round and came back. It was fun all the same. Our guide was wearing a traditional gaucho hat and didnīt say that much. My favourite was when he randomly stopped his horse, felt the wind and said in Spanish, ĻNorth wind, brings in the vipersĻand rode on. Cool as Clint Eastwood he was. We met Nathan, an English guy from the boat trip yesterday, who had also been horse riding that morning but not as part of a package tour like us. His horse had bolted when he dropped his water bottle, throwing him off with one foot stuck in the stirrup and dragging him a short way. He was still in good spirits though. After a lunchtime beer fetched from about half a mile away in the baking heat by us guys while the girls sat off and sunbathed, we all went for a walk near the visitors centre across the causeway. The girls had bought little wooden capybaras off a kid and were behaving strangely. First thing our kid guide showed us was a small anaconda about 2m long sunning itself by the lake. When it didnīt look like moving Lucy climbed down and got within an arms length for a quality photo. We then walked in the forest and saw families of howler monkeys. Unlike the ones we saw in Guatemala they were used to humans around so didnīt start to roar or run away. Finally back at the visitor centre a capybara was cutting the lawn, and the girls, who had now gone completely capybara crazy and were planning to take some home as pets, got up close for photos
The laguna
. We got back to the hostel about 5, too early for more cards and drinking so we decided to go piranha fishing after seeing some locals at it on the way back. After a quick grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed from fruit from the tree, we grabbed my gear and some beers for luck, plus a fat wedge of bloody steak the hostel owners gave us and hotfooted it back to the lake before sunset. When we got out onto the causeway over the lake, we met Nathan again who with a few Aussies we met, had got the local bus to Mercedes a while ago. The bus got a few hundred metres out of town onto the causeway before breaking down!
I managed to catch a small piranha before dark and everyone headed back to the hostel apart from me and Tijs, who armed with headtorches, a penknife and insect repellent, felt adequately prepared to face the crocs, snakes, piranhas and dengue fever carrying-mozzies surrounding us which we could no longer see. Fortune favours the brave however, and despite losing a lot of hooks, weights and steak to the thrashing piranhas razor sharp teeth, we kept all fingers intact and caught 4 yellow bellied piranha and a small catfish. We hadnīt fully thought through what to do when we caught them and getting them off the hook was proper scary. We were under instructions not to bother bringing them home as the piranhas are too bony according to the hostel owners, plus they couldnīt be arsed to cook them up for us which is fair enough
Capybara going in
. Locals we met on the way back thought we were completely nuts though, throwing good fish back in the lake. We could have done the trip ourselves as Nathan and a few others we met did, but it seemed like a lot more hassle for a little less money. There is a bus that goes daily between Mercedes and Carlos Pelligrini, although getting out to the north is expensive. There are plenty of hostels there and a couple of place to eat. The activities are not cheap and if you add it up you may as well book a tour. The all-inclusive two day trip was well worth it, the food was definitely not enough to fill us up but was tasty all the same. The guys we were with were brilliant we all got on well and the tour was one of the highlights of South America, if not the whole trip.
