Capybara galore

---

---

BA to Mercedes to Carlos Pelligini After a nine hour bus journey north of BA we arrived in sleepy (comaesque) town of Mercedes. The bus was very comfortable and allowed for some short bursts of sleep. It was as i awoke from one of these bursts that i seen how treachorous road conditions had become. Extreme fog, and in the distance two headlighjts fast approaching. my heart began to race, it was heading right at us, was dreaming? i couldn´t stare away. In a matter of seconds it would plough straight mangalong our bodies all over Fleecha buses reclining seats. alas it passed by peacefully on it own side of the road, my heart retreating from my mouth until the next near miss. Twenty or thirty near misss later the fog dispersed and we arrived in Mercedes.

In Mercedes we arranged onward travel to Carlos Pelligrini. No major bus companies make the exhausting 4 hour 120km journey because the ´road´ is rather risque. So it was into a Ford Transit 12 seater run by Rayo who i suspected may also have been Mayor of Mercedes! The bus dropped us in carlos pelligrini, in the heart of the Esteros Del Ibera national park at about 16:00. Pelligrini is a tiny town of some 500 souls. Red gravel roads, a dog on every corner, horses grazing on the side of the road and of couse the star of the show, a huge lagon with a plethoria of indiginous wildlife. We were brought straight to our guesthouse by rayo, a lovely old house right of th lagon. Before we could brush our teeth and test the bed it we were ambused by a one of the staff who i thaught through my powers of spainish was asking if we wanted some lemonade. Wrong, we were whisked off on a boat trip deep into the laggon.


Absolutly amazing, Capbyaras galore and plenty of crocs to keep them on their toes. We also got to meet some Marsh deer, golden in colour beutiful animals. Because we thaught we wre doing for lemonade we didn,t bring a camera. We did however get to go out again the next day so it was okay. in hindsght it was great to see it without clicking everything in sight. Back to our digs and dinner time, a time we would come to savour at this place because the large women from the kitchen coked the finest meals, we had a kinda casserole one day and some rissoto dish the next. The two days we spent here were great, especially after the hugeness of BA. We had couple of hours to wait around on the third day and just chilled in the garden, caught up on our diaries and reading and sid our godbyes before our 4 hour journey out of Pellirini on an even crapyer road to Posadas further north again towards Igazu and the Brazilian border.

---