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Published: March 10th 2007
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From BsAs to Iguazu falls was a very long stretch. Broken up into a couple of camping stops. The first along the Uruguay river, separating Argentina from the country the river was named after. Big storm, lots of rain, and some people sleeping on a bus (who had forgotten to put their tent up properly before the downpore)...
The second stop, for a few nights, was on sort of an island: San Carlos Pellegrini. It´s in the north of Argentina, in their version of the wetlands. By now we´d already found out why they´re called ´wetlands´, but, there would be more to come.
We had a quiet boat cruise in the morning, enjoying the wildlife (cayman, capibarris, plenty of birds, deer, etc etc), and also getting to grips with these ´floating´islands of lush green vegitation. Now we´re not talking about a little blob of lillies, but stretches of over 100 meters long.... and as mentioned, even deer walking around on them ! Quite impressive.
It was kinda hot, and being that close to the water, also many mozzies around, so afternoon was spent trying to locate icecream (basic camping only goes so far). No luck, but we did
manage to locate 2 options for using a swimming pool, at a cost of course, but it would be well worth it !
Main reason for looking for a pool actually wasn´t the cayman, but more the piranhas that some Ozzie blokes had fished out of the water RIGHT in front of the campsite. No no use jumping in for a splash there !
The pool was great, or maybe, having a very cold beer in the pool was great. Even just for a few hours, it was great to soak of some of the built up dirt, and just let it all wash away. Two hours was enough, and the casual walk back to the campsite (500m) turned into an olympic sprint with yet another tropical downpoor hitting us on the way. As we were already wet, we sacrificed ourselves to properly pin down some of the tents of others (who were hiding in shelter of bus comfort). The main worry now was if the BBQ would be called of, and if we´d be able to take the shortcut in the morning without getting bogged.
The BBQ did happen, but unfortunately the ordered lambs (2) and
beers (12 liter bottles) did not arrive till well after 8pm (instead of the agreed 4pm). But hey, we were on argentinian time! By that time most people had already cooked their sausages and salads, and eaten them as well. So a whole lamb, on a BBQ, would take another 2-3 hours to cook. A rather large late night snack one could say.
Vegetarians better not read this section Now, being a butcher´s son, and being well aware of the basics of butchering, let me try to deduct a reason why those yummy lambs were late for their appointment with the grill. I did help unload one lamp, and put it into a bag untill it would be put on the grill. Let me say, there wasn´t a lot of refrigeration going on..... even more, one could say there was a bif nof body temperature left there.... Now considering the state of the shirt of the old fellow who dropped the lamps of with his pick-up, I´m assuming that he was late as he was having problems either catching the 2 in the paddock, or butchering them, but probably both!
Needless to say not enough people staid up
late to enjoy the meat, so we enjoyed a lamb curry with the remainder the next day!
Vegetarians can read this again So, the next day, early departure for 3 Dragoman trucks (there were 4 of em camping together). Ours was last to leave, but it only took an hour or so for us to catch up with 2 bogged in (stuck in the mud, that is) trucks. Yes, not one, but both. OK, the second apparently had bad suspension, so it was more than a handful on the muddy gravel tracks. The first had a female driver..... No, there was no reason to politically correct here, as we later found out they did bugger-all to get the truck out, except wait for us to help them.
In trying to pass these 2, we got stuck as well (see picture).
On either side of the road was a moat, or river, or whatever you´d like to call a stretch of water in which you don´t want to end up in. And for those who can see the cable between the back of the 2 trucks, that was my idea ;-) and I´m pleased to say that
it worked a treat in keeping the truck out of the water.
So over 2 hours of metal sand mats, pushing, and shoving, did get us out in the end, allbeit knowing we´d not be able to make it to Iguazu falls that day. Another bushcamp by the side of a petrol station was awaiting us !
Next day, we had a brief stopover at some ruins of Jesuit Missions. Some, as there are a great many in this province (hense the name of the province, Missiones). It was actually quite nice just to have a casual stroll through the ruins, and just take it all in. Apparently, unlike other Jesuits, these missions were very succesfull, manly because they tried to work with the locals, rather than force the religion down their throat! Funny that.....
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