Tales of the riverbank
Trip Start
Jan 12, 2011
1
22
25
Trip End
Jun 02, 2011
Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, Litoral, Argentina
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
We stopped off for the night at Posadas where we had arranged to meet Hector Mendoza
(coatihector@hotmail.com) who was going to take us to the small town of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini by 4WD. At 800 pesos, its not cheap, but its the only way in from Posadas. We could have gone in from Mercedes, but that would have taken at least another two days. The journey takes between two and seven hours, depending on road conditions and it had rained overnight. Its only 120km and took us two hours to do the first 100km and then two more to do the last 20km. Hector showed his skill by driving, sometimes crablike, through thick mud. Whilst all sorts of birds of pray watched on.
We hadn´t been able to make up our minds where to stay, so when Hector recommended somewhere to stay that was cheaper than all our alternatives, we readily agreed.
We pulled up at Mrs Miggins, who quickly sold us a boat trip for that afternoon. The boat trip was excellent, we had our first meeting with a capybara, which is the world´s biggest rodent. Saw loads of Caymans and Marsh Deer as well as an incredible array of different wildlife.
The streets of Pellegrini are thick mud (my hiking boots are really coming into their own here) and populated with horses, cows donkeys dogs and sheep who stroll aroung the streets keeping the grass down.
We had dinner at Mrs Miggins before retiring early to a serenade of frogs and crickets and waking to a seranáde of bird song and bleating lambs.
We wanted to buy a book we had seen at the tourist information office, containing all the flora and fauna of the area, but the shop was closed. A local workman asked us what we wanted, borrowed the keys to the shop, opened up and sold us a copy.
Took ourselves off for a walk to try and see some more big rats. There are scores of butterflies here including one we saw that wasn´t in the book. If it turns out to be a new species, we saw it first and are officially naming it "Arthur". Met a family of capybara and some more marsh deer.
The birdlife is absolutely incredible, Sharon´s worried I´m turning into Bill Oddie, but we´ve seen Hawks, kingfishers, humming birds, parrots, herons, turkeys, kites, woodpeckers and so many more of all different shapes colours and sizes.
Went for a night walk, courtesy of Mrs Miggins, who seems to run all the tours in town. This time we saw capybara, vizcachas (like raccoons), deer, crab-eating foxes, grey foxes and an Armadillo. Fan-bloody-tastic!
Next day we headed out to see the monkeys! Yep, they´ve got the lot here! We spotted a family of Howler Monkeys high in the trees, but they wouldn´t come down to play.
We had lunch surrounded by a family of capybaras, when a fox walked past us one way and a Marsh Deer the other. Honestly, you could have stuffed me down a rabbit hole and called me Alice and it could not have been more wonderous.
Took another boat trip, even better than the first one, saw all the usual suspects, but this time there were only four of us and the trip was longer. Just wish I had some binoculars and a good camera.
Went for a meal at a local restaurant where we were the only ones there. Now if I was to come round to your house and ask you to cook me a meal, I would expect you to be put out and to huff and puff a bit, but not if you´ve got "Restaurante" written on your door and I was paying for it. We were made about as welcome as a sausage at a Bar Mitzvah.
All too soon it was time to leave this magical place.
The mud road to Mercedes is much drier, so the transfer is simpler and therefore cheaper. But my heart sank as we saw a work crew tarmacking the road from Mercedes to Pellegrini.
Looks like we got there just in time!
