What a surprise!

Covering over 13000 sq km, Ibera is a wildlife-spotters paradise with forested islands, marshland and a savanna of its own! This was our next destination! Initially, Ismene and I thought we were staying in a run-down campsite until we arrived in a smart lodge in the Uguay area of Ibera that had its own swimming pool and your meals cooked for you. And the best thing: we were the only people there! Dan and Ioanna certainly kept this little surprise quiet 😊. It was a fantastic way to mark our first month anniversary in South America.

The first evening, our guide, Ignacio, took us on a night walk to explore the grounds of the lodge. In the nearby lake, we spotted our first caiman, and, along the dusty trail, we saw two guazunchos (a type of small dear). As we reached the border between the grounds of the lodge and the Ibera national park, a family of bored looking capybaras were munching lazily on grass and didn’t even move as we walked up to them (well, other than their mouths eating with immense concentration on the grass). The sun launching a beautiful light across the wetlands of Ibera and the arrival of hundreds of luminescent fireflies made it a magical ending of our first night.

The next day, as the sun was still climbing up the clear blue sky, we set out, first with the kayaks, and then on a long hike, along the muddy marsh to one of Ibera’s clear-blue lagoons. Normally, you would be able to kayak or go by boat to the lagoon, but this 4-year draught has hit the Ibera hard and put a stop to all that. It is very sad to see how, in this part of the world, the climate change is really taking an effect on people’s and animals’ lives.

By the lagoon, there was a small one-person kayak which we used to go around, and spotted one three-meter-long caiman.  It was awesome! On the way back, Ismene and I raced ahead setting a record-time to get back from the lagoon to the kayaks, while the others fought through the mud and the heat.

In the early evening, we went horse riding. My horse was nice and easy to keep under control, but Dan’s horse had a different idea. When he tried to coax it into a trot, it almost broke into a canter, and he had to jump off to the ground. Luckily, the ground was soft, but he suffered a blow to his cheek from the camera which caused a gash. Don’t worry – it wasn’t anything too bad. He’s recovering well, and of course, he has another story to tell 😊

On our last day at the lodge, we walked through a forest to reach a sky-scrapping watchtower with a view of the Ibera wetland that stretched for miles. Unfortunately, we paid a price for that walk – not in money, but in ticks ☹

Read my next posts to find out the highlight of our Ibera stay and what to do if you want to become a park ranger…