Ibera Wetlands

 

We have been in the Ibera Regional Park in Corrientes Region for the last few days.  We briefly escaped the thunderstorms but they have caught up with us again this afternoon.  There has been so much rain!  The unmade roads are a mess and there was water over some of the main roads - unavoidable when there was 100mm in under 2 hours!


To get here we passed through Mercedes which is an old town in need of some love.  You can see once grand old buildings in a state of disrepair and some cobbled streets.  It has the closest petrol supply to the town in the regional park - Carlos Pellegrini - but is 70 km away so locals would have to keep a private supply.  It is also the closest shopping area with just a little supermarket here.


Along the unmade road to the regional park and adjacent to it is a national park that is relatively new and as yet has limited visitor infrastructure.  It was a large estancia (ranch) that was returned to close to natural habitats then donated to the government.  There has been a program to reintroduce jaguars into the natural environment starting in this national park.  Luckily the regional park has good visitor infrastructure and I have been able to keep up my earring acquisition program!


The Ibera Wetland in the regional park is wonderful and there are several good working trails.  We have also been able to go on boat trips on the lagoon for closer views of some special birds plus mammals and the cayman - a small crocodile.  The local roads have been a good source of birds for Steve and his life list continues to grow.


On Wednesday, provided the roads allow it, we move on.


Mercedes needs some love

Gauchito Gil is honoured by some locals.  He's a bit of a Robin Hood figure.  There are shrines to him dotted around the province (and we also saw them in Patagonia) and gauchos usually wear some red, often a scarf or cravat.  They sit around the shrine and drink beer and leave the empty cans there as an offering.


Birding from a boat in the swamp - that's a scarlet-headed blackbird.  If you want good bird photos look at Steve's pics!

Half way through our trip already!



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