Blogs from Corrientes, Argentina, South America - page 2

From the fabulous, remote wetlands of the Esteros de Ibera and the tiny town of Carlos Peligrini, I took the cheapest option out of town and arrived in the small, sweet gaucho town of Mercedes (population 32,000). This was a working, not a tourist, town, so only some of the early 20c buildings had been spruced up while others were in various states of decay. Yet it was clean and graffiti free, something I've come to treasure in this 21st century. Days were warm and in the deliciously cool evenings, townfolk and gauchos filled the leafy plaza. The gauchos were very attractive in their berets or flat, wide-brimmed hats, rather jaunty pleated, blousy pants, and wide colorful or silver-studded belts. The town's claim to fame is the shrine to Gaucho Gil, a popular Robin Hood character ... read more

Vik's bit: Iguaçu, a spectacular mass of overwhelmingly beautiful waterfalls, apparently created by a God in a rage after his betrothed took off with some other bloke in a canoe. Pretty furius, the God spliced the river in half, condemning them to fall forever. Or something like that. We entered first on the Brazilian side, where the 275 separate falls combine into one seeming whole of thundering water. The sound and the spray reach you long before your first - genuinely heart-fluttery, sharp intake of breath - sight of them. Amazing. And the impact, somewhat bizarre; groups of people racing through the footpaths, laughing their socks off for no apparent reason. Or strings of folk marching along in song. All rather odd. But incredible. And after a night in Brazil we headed to see the Argentinian ... read more

Since there's not so many Argentines knowing about this park, it didn't surprise me that most people reacted with 'you're going where?' to me explaining my plans of exploring this small park of lively lagunas, palmtrees and difficult roads. Parque Mburucuyá was created out of two former estancias (large farms and their land), holds magnificent animal life and fine scenery sights. My first stop on the way to the park was Saladas, a town with a bus terminal. Wandering around there, i asked a girl in a ticket office for directions, and if i could leave my backpack there. She looked at my luggage, asked whereever i came from, and upon my reply shouted out 'impossible! And you're here in Saladas! Come in and have mate, you need to tell me all about your life!' That ... read more

We had our first weekend trip with GW to Los Esteros de Ibera, wetlands in the North East of Argentina. Ibera comes from Guarani (an indigenous population in that area of South America) and means "shinning water." The freshwater wetlands are protected in Argentina and are some of the largest in the world. The decision to take a trip to this nature reserve came when it became too risky for us to travel to Salta, in the northwestern region of Argentina, because of dengue. We took a ten hour bus ride over night on Thursday and then a two hour van ride on a dirt road to get from Buenos Aires to the reserve. We stayed at a lodge on the reserve (http://www.posadadelalaguna.com/). It was an incredible trip and I loved getting out of this huge ... read more

HOla, Well after our last night in luxury, its back on the road for us. We got a decent start this Am, on the road by 10.30. Well first off, the extra seat padding we put on the seat seems to be working pretty well. We bought a camping sleeping foam pad and cut it up and taped it to the seat, haha. Looks terrible, but hey whatever works! So todays plan was to go about 400km to a town called Ituzaingo, its about 100km west of the town Posadas. Todays ride went pretty well. I have to say it felt soo good to get back on the bike, and start riding. It really exciting to know we get to come and go as we please , no bus schedules to follow, Its all up to ... read more