Blogs from Carlos Pellegrini, Santa Fe, Argentina, South America

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 ... read more

After our quick tour of the Jesuit ruins, we grabbed a bus to Posadas the capital of Misiones province and tried to figure out where to go next. Our destination was a small town called Colonial Carlos Pelegrinni, situated on the second largest wetland in South America behind the Pantanal of Southern Brazil and Paraguay, but harbouring the same ecosystem. The wetland, whose name is the Reserva de los Esteros del Ibera (Ibera meaning brilliant waters in Guarani), comprises over 1.3 million hectares and occupies over 14% the province of Corrientes in which it finds itself. There is only limited access to this part of Argentina and so our options for travel were somewhat limited. It was 5pm, and we had been travelling since 7 this morning, Laurence and I were both tired and were not ... read more

My first time off after 3 weeks working at the ranch - my god it was a hard slog - Anne and I spent the weekend at Ibera Provincial Reserve. Well technically we were staying at the tiny town of Carlos Pellegrini (population 500 or so) but the town is right next to the reserve. The reserve is very new - only 25 years old i think - so the alligators are all young and not too big (because there were a huge amount of poachers hunting them before) and the place is quite quiet. The other reason for the lack of visitors is that apparently not many Argetineans can afford to come. It came as quite a sad shock when I realised that most Argentineans can't afford to see all the amazing beautiful parts of ... read more

Hola I have been into the wilderness for a while, but Im now back in the world with Internet! We went to get our boat across the river to Argentina, but it turned out we should have booked, and it was full! So we lugged our rucksacks back up the hill and to the bus station! I am really glad, because as always in these situations, it works out for the best.. had we got on the boat we wouldnt have made friends with a lady from Paraguay and her 10 year old son- Ale, and we wouldnt have whiled away the hours on the bus playing spiderman top trumps with Ale, and we wouldnt be fluent in spanish numbers! We arrived in Mercedes, an outback town in Argentina - with nothing much going on! However ... read more