Wildlife heaven!
This morning I got back from a pretty amazing weekend in the northern Argentine province of Corrientes (close to the borders with Paraguay and Brazil). The reason for the trip was to visit the Parque National Esteros del Iberá (Iberá Wetlands Wildlife Reserve).
The trip started on Friday evening with a 12 hour coach trip to a little village called Mercedes. I arrived at 7am and went straight to the tourist office (in Hostel Delicias) where they informed me that I was unlikely to get to the park, as the only bus that goes there had been cancelled for the next 3 days. They were sweet and tried to accommodate me as best as possible. I had to wait around town for about 7 hours, so had a walk around the village, where near the main square I met the lovely owners and friends of Cafe Piccolo and a few blocks away I got to see the poorer part of town. Back at the tourist office I was offered a rather expensive all-inclusive excursion, which included the 3hr journey along the 100km dirt track that leads to the park, one-night's accommodation, all meals, a walk in the tropical forests where there's a group of black howler monkeys and a 2hr boat trip to the wetland marshes where there are hundreds of bird species, marsh deer and plenty of capybara to see.
Unfortunately the weather was quite bad for most of the time there, but what with the great company I had found myself in (a family from nearby Corrientes) and a short burst of sunshine during our boat trip I finally felt like my luck was changing, as we were able to see plenty of wildlife, such as: caimans (broad-snouted + spectacled), capybara, marsh deer, herons (white-necked), egrets (great + snowy), storks, ibis, southern screamers, vultures, kites, caracaras, kingfishers, lapwings, giant wood-rail and many more. I bought a book with pictures so I could remember the names!! (:
So I hope you enjoy the pictures. Here they are.
The trip started on Friday evening with a 12 hour coach trip to a little village called Mercedes. I arrived at 7am and went straight to the tourist office (in Hostel Delicias) where they informed me that I was unlikely to get to the park, as the only bus that goes there had been cancelled for the next 3 days. They were sweet and tried to accommodate me as best as possible. I had to wait around town for about 7 hours, so had a walk around the village, where near the main square I met the lovely owners and friends of Cafe Piccolo and a few blocks away I got to see the poorer part of town. Back at the tourist office I was offered a rather expensive all-inclusive excursion, which included the 3hr journey along the 100km dirt track that leads to the park, one-night's accommodation, all meals, a walk in the tropical forests where there's a group of black howler monkeys and a 2hr boat trip to the wetland marshes where there are hundreds of bird species, marsh deer and plenty of capybara to see.
Unfortunately the weather was quite bad for most of the time there, but what with the great company I had found myself in (a family from nearby Corrientes) and a short burst of sunshine during our boat trip I finally felt like my luck was changing, as we were able to see plenty of wildlife, such as: caimans (broad-snouted + spectacled), capybara, marsh deer, herons (white-necked), egrets (great + snowy), storks, ibis, southern screamers, vultures, kites, caracaras, kingfishers, lapwings, giant wood-rail and many more. I bought a book with pictures so I could remember the names!! (:
So I hope you enjoy the pictures. Here they are.
posted by Louise Parmenter at 11:55 pm
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