Los Esteros del Iberá, Corrientes Day Two

20 July 2006

Pablo, our guide for the walk, collected us from the Casa Luna at 0830 in his very antiquated Citroën 2CV. We drove across the rickety bridge to the park ranger's office from where the walk starts. Two more had joined us, an American girl and an English guy, who had come just for the morning to do the walk and boat excursion. A little path through a small section woods had been created, ensuring that no one strayed off into the wilderness. Pablo spoke in Spanish, translating the occasional word into English for some animal or plant. The highlight of the one and a half hour walk was the sighting of a colony of monkeys who were very curious about our presence. Pablo was able to draw them out with specific animal calls. The photo below is of Pablo clutching his maté and thermos while driving the 2CV. This is a pretty common sight in these parts. I will write something about mate later.

While we waited for the two new arrivals to be collected for their boat trip, mountain cat appear from the woods. It passed by two carpinchos grazing. They took on an aggressive posture and half heartedly chased the cat off. They knew it was no threat. It brushed passed my leg as it headed for the ranger's station. For such peaceful looking animals, it was interesting to see their reaction to the cat. I do not think this cat was going to start playing with a pair of 50kg rodents! The cat was clearly quite used to its human neighbors. It happily hung around us for awhile.

After lunch the French ladies were collected by a 4x4 pickup truck, which was taking them to Posadas. I thought the road from Mercedes was poor. The 'road' to Posadas is longer and can only be traveled by 4x4. When there has been some rain, it is impassable. If I had not raced up to Iguazú to do the full moon tour, I would have come through Iberá first and taken this option. Even at something like AR$70 per person for the 4x4, it makes a lot of sense. Otherwise you have to go back to Mercedes, then up to Corrientes and then across to Posadas, which is a good day's worth of bus rides.

But, I had another night in Pellegrini because the only bus back to Mercedes leaves at 0400! The reason for the horrifically early departure is to allow the residents of Pellegrini to go into town to do whatever business they need to and then take the bus back at 1300. So for the remainder of the warm and sunny day I relaxed by the lake and finished Bruce Chatwin's "In Patagonia". I then set off and explored the colony of Pellegrini until the sun set (and the mosquitoes became vicious).

I first headed to the little tourist hut on the main road, where I was amazed to find they had a decent brochure with a town plan. The plan made the place appear to be a lot more built up than it actually was. Pellegrini is laid out in a grid, like all other Argentinean towns and cities. However, many of the blocks are grassy fields with horses and cows lazily grazing. The dwellings, by and large, are fairly basic. The exceptions to this are the couple of small but very comfortable resorts. Despite its price, the Casa Luna was not one of them. There are a few simple "hospedajes" where one can stay cheaply as well as some medium priced hostels. There are also couple of "comedores", which are basic restaurants.

During the day two Argentinean families arrived at the Luna. Early in the evening, Alejandro, our host at the Luna, asked me if I minded eating with one of the families. Of course not! I sat at the head of the table with Walter, a man of about 70, his younger wife and his five of his grand nephews and niece. Walter was of German parentage and worked for most of his life with BASF, the German chemicals company. He is now retired and runs a large cattle farm with his six sisters, not far from Mercedes. Of all the Argentineans that I have met, he was probably one of the easiest to understand. He spoke very clearly and quite slowly, though, I do not think for my benefit. It was an interesting dinner!

Photos of Iberá and Carlos Pellegrini can be found here.