Iberá Travel Diary

18 Sept 2001
South America has three great wetlands:  the Llanos of Venezuela, the Pantanal in Brazil, and the Esteros del Iberá in northern Argentina.  The last of these, the most remote and least known of the three, is my next destination.  Even birders who visit Argentina seldom make it there.  The starting point is the city of Posadas, on the Rio Paraná separating Argentina from Paraguay.  My morning flight from Buenos Aires is met by local guide Atilio; we then drive 240 km south, most of it on a rough sandy road, listening to jazz on the CD player of his 4WD.  The landscape bears an uncanny resemblance to my own Oklahoma:  a rolling, windswept plain with scattered low trees, comprised mostly of horse and cattle estancias, or ranches.   Unlike Oklahoma, and unfortunately for the Argentine economy, the range is dotted with termite mounds, not oil wells.
    We arrive in time for lunch at Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, an isolated hamlet of 700 souls.  The main form of transportation into and around town is horse, not car, which gives a sense of the place.  My hotel, Posada de la Laguna, is owned and run by Elsa Güiraldes, a woman of great energy and intelligence.  Elsa speaks good English and has created a first-class resort here in the wilderness.  She also helps run Fundacion Acarapua, which provides environmental education and meals for the local children.