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We had heard about this park where you could see some pretty different creatures, so we decided to try and get there. However, there was no direct route, so we took an 11hr night bus to Corrientes and then had 20 mins to buy a ticket to Mecedes, which we just made! Another 4hrs in the bus and we were there.
In Mecedes we had to wait for a few hours for a bus to the national park, which was another 2.5 hrs away. However, when our bus arrived we knew this was going to be a bit of old school travelling, as the comforts we were used to with the bigger buses were non-existant! If the bus would actually get us there was the question?
A very sweaty, dusty, bumpy journey took us in to the middle of nowehere! We saw lots of wildlife on the drive, birds of prey and some rather large pig like mamals? We got dropped off at the info point and quickly located a place to stay, which seemed nice until we realised the walls were covered in mosquitos!! We managed to make some dinner and sorted a river safari for tomorrow, before getting under the mosquito net and sleeping.
We were up at 7am for the river safari and it was already redicously hot! The safari was pretty cool as we saw loads of Caymans up close and loads of different birds and even a swamp deer. We got back and chilled for a bit and then walked around to try and sort a bus back for the next day. This place was dead and I mean dead. The roads were dust tracks and houses were huts made of metal and mud. The heat was crazy and it was draining just walking a few blocks! We eventually found a small house, which was the bus ticket office and got ourselves tickets for the 5am bus back (it was that or 3am?).
We decided to watch the sunset this evening, so ate early, bought a couple of beers and headed off to the bridge that overlooked the water. It was really beautiful to see and we had a dog that followed us the whole way and sat with us. We drank the beer and enjoyed the sky changing from blues to purples to reds and then the sun was gone. There were a few mosquitos, so we started heading back. There was a wierd buzz in the air, which we thought were frogs or birds... It turned out to be literally millions of mosquitos, which hit us like a wall as we tried to get home! We crouched down, tried not to inhale a mouthful of the beasts and eventually ran 1/2 km home... It was a nightmare!Eventually, we got away from the water and managed to walk the last bit back to our hostel. We even saw a large frog on the way back.
We got back to our room, packed up and tried to get some sleep, before our early bus. The trip back was in a better bus, but the weather suddenly changed and we were hit by a storm, which turned the dust roads in to a rally track. With wide eys we watched our driver lose the back end several times before we finally got back on to tarmac and arrived safely in Mecedes.
It was a crazy few days with a lot of travelling to get 2 days in the wilderness, but it was worth it as we saw another side to life here, many times being reminded of our time in Africa, as life was very simple and the people did not seem to want for too much. They were all very friendly and we both found it a great experience.
- comments
Adrian Pearman Your large pig like mammal is a Coypu, quite tasty I believe.
Lynne I believe the actual name is Capybara, a bit bigger. Tasty?
Caroline Kersjes Gaaf hoor! Hebben jullie de verhalen ook in het nederlands? Voor de wat mindere talenknobbelhebbende onder ons?? Heel veel plezier nog daar! Groetjes Caroline
Adrian Ooop's, stand corrected
thea Hallo lynne en Ben, leuke verhalen, en veel mooie dingen zien, geweldig! Hoe ziet de kerstboom er bij jullie uit dit jaar? Lieve groet van ons hier en sprankelende feestdagen gewenst!