Ok, so here's a top tip for travellers in Latin America.
The Pantanal is one of Brazil's top attractions. We've never been there, though, because it is a notoriously expensive place to get to and we're, shall we say, a little "price-sensitive". Argentina has an unsung equivalent, which is almost as impressive and a fraction of the cost. The only snag is you need a car to get there (which, happily for us, we happen to have).
The Ibera wetlands are huge (1.3 million hectares of swamp) and astonishingly little-known. We discovered them quite by accident, and none of the other travellers we've met in Argentina have even heard of them, let alone visited. A pity, because they really are spectacular.
The drive there, on a long, fabulously muddy road across miles and miles of utterly flat pampas, gives little indication of the spectacle to come.
We reached the beautifully-situated lakeside Pellegrini municipal campsite late in the evening and the first thing we saw, munching the grass on which we were about to pitch our tent, was a capybara. From behind it could easily have been a warthog, resting on its knees to munch the grass. But from head on it looks unmistakably rodent-like (which it is), and resembles nothing more than an oversized guinea pig.
Early next morning we all hopped on to a boat, and for a modest $10 each spent a good 2 hours drifting gently through a swampy wonderland (part Okavango, part Bharatpur) with an excellent local guide. It was paradise.
We saw caymans (jacare´), marsh deer, capybara and huge volumes of birds, and all for the price of a hamburger.
Sadly we didn't have time to stick around, but you can also go for guided walks or (which we would have loved to have done) horse rides. But just our one night and one boat trip made it worthwhile. What a find! Highly, highly recommended.
The Pantanal is one of Brazil's top attractions. We've never been there, though, because it is a notoriously expensive place to get to and we're, shall we say, a little "price-sensitive". Argentina has an unsung equivalent, which is almost as impressive and a fraction of the cost. The only snag is you need a car to get there (which, happily for us, we happen to have).
The Ibera wetlands are huge (1.3 million hectares of swamp) and astonishingly little-known. We discovered them quite by accident, and none of the other travellers we've met in Argentina have even heard of them, let alone visited. A pity, because they really are spectacular.
The drive there, on a long, fabulously muddy road across miles and miles of utterly flat pampas, gives little indication of the spectacle to come.
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| Mud and flatness... |
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| Never knew guinea pigs could get this big! |
We saw caymans (jacare´), marsh deer, capybara and huge volumes of birds, and all for the price of a hamburger.
Sadly we didn't have time to stick around, but you can also go for guided walks or (which we would have loved to have done) horse rides. But just our one night and one boat trip made it worthwhile. What a find! Highly, highly recommended.
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