Ibera wetlands
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2005
1
54
103
Trip End
Jun 24, 2006
Carlos Pellegrini, Argentina
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Miles travelled: 47058
We're in the wetlands of Esteros del Ibera national park. This is an area comparable to Brazil's Pantanal, as it has areas supporting a huge amount of wildlife and birds. We're camping along Lago Ibera. A boat trip showed us lots of wildlife, including lots of caimans (crocodiles) and capybaras -- the world's largest rodent, up to 100 lbs and the size of a dog. (They also make "leather" goods out of capybaras, and both of us bought some items.)
On the dirt road leaving Carlos Pellegrini, we were stopped by hundreds of head of cattle being herded down the road by four gauchos (the cowboys of Argentina). It was an interesting sight to wath the cows and dust and even see the panic and confusion in their eyes as they tried fo figure out which side of the truck to run around. Then down the road we had to stop for hundreds of sheep. They were all baaahh -ing and looking dumbfounded and terrified. There was one pokey sheep in the back that the gaucho was trying to herd. It looked like it had a limp; then it tripped and did a forward roll in the dirt before scrambling off to the others. Then they all ran off toward the fence, ran into it, and screamed baaahh as if not knowing where to go, until the gauchos herded them along the fence. The sheep did appear to be pretty stupid.
