I am now in the Sheraton hotel in the national park at Iguazu in the north of Argentina as I type this.
Colon
Early Saturday morning on April 23rd, Steve and I leave Buenos Aies to go a town called Colon in the province of Entre Rios. It was over a four drive. We left Buenos Aires around 6 AM which meant we had to get up around 5 AM – ughh. But we wanted to get an early start on the day and make the most of it.
Originally, the plan was to go stay in a place outside Colon that has rooms made from railway cars. But when we got there, we found that they were all booked up. Before we left, we had a look around grounds. There was a flock of birds that looked like minature Ostriches kept in a pen; they are type of Rhea called Nandu. The father tends to the raising of the young; I got fairly close to the adult bird and looked it in the eye briefly; you want to pet them but I would like to keep my fingers so I resisted the temptation. A bird that big and their brains are quite small in comparison. As Steve said to me they may not be that smart but they act rather instintively.
We then drove to Parque Nacional El Palmar. It is known for the palm trees that are native to the area. I was hoping to see some Capybaras which are known to live in the park. They are the world's largest rodent; they can weigh up to 60 kg. I did not see any but we did see some tracks and piles of shit that we thought might have been from a Capybara. That is just it though; you would have spend some time tracking the animals and waiting quielty to see them; they are wild after all and probably aren't too keen on people. In Venezuela the Catholic chuch decreed that they are fish during colonial tiimes as they live in the water some of the time and therefore could be eaten during lent. The church never revoked the decree. I wonder if there is a Capybara cookbook. We did see in a roadstop cafe jars of cured meat like Capybara.
After leaving the park, we then drove to Colon; Colon is situated on the Rio Uruguay; we went to find a friend of Steve's : Charles Adamson; Charlie was born in Argentina of Scottish parents and spoke fluent English and Spanish; twelve years ago he set up an eco tour company that did excursions in the area; people in the area just did not get what Charlie was up to; he has made a success of it with his partners. Charlie knows so much about nature and is very well read; Charlie and his partner Pablo took us on a trip to one of the islands in the river. It turns out that we were in Uruguay when we were on the island. And tomorrow I am going on a excursion into Brazil. So it means I will have been to three countries in South America on this trip.
We would walk through some trails on the island and Charlie told us how the tree bark of certain trees could be used as a form of Aspirin; the Guarini tribe knew about the medicinal properties of the tree park. Charlie pointed out a type of berry that was called Doll's Eye. The berries would split open and look little eyes with pupils; this was a tatic to get birds to eat the berries thinking they were insects. Speaking of insects, we were under constant assault by mosquitoes; we had applied liberal amounts of bug repellent but they still bit us. I got bitten on the lip and my lower lip swelled up. Fortunately, the swelling was gone by the next day. I don't know when I had ever been bitten like that.
We had travelled by Zodiac boats and we then left the island and went down the river and came up to a huge sandbank that was in the middle of the river. I had never seen such a thing; it was like a beach in the middle of the river.
We than spent the remaining part of the excursion there. We also saw some tracks of what would have been a large capybara. We waiting for the sunset and drank some beer, It was a full moon that night and the sky was taking on a beautiful purple hue on the horizon. Steve was filming Charlie reciting some poetry against full moon and then we heard something that was like pan pipes. I thought was somebody in the island nearby playing a musical insrutment? In fact is was the sound of type of Egret. Four large birds emerged from the forest canopy and flew upwards into the evening sky – remarkable. Eventhough, I was really hoping to see some Capybaras (and maybe I will at some point)l, seeing and hearing the birds was such an unexpected delight. I should mention that there was couple with Flor and Fedeirco; Fedeirco was a videographer and had some done some filming with Charlie before. In fact, there was three of us with mini DV cameras filming. Hopefully, an edit of the trip will appear online soon. Later that night we did stop by Federicos places to have a quick look at some of his video work with Charlie from before. Charlie and Fedeirco were having sips of the Mate which is like tea; it is a drink that many people drink in Argentina; the cup has a drinking straw and is passed from person to person to drink from; there is a social element to sharing a cup of Mate with another person.
Steve and I had rented a small house in Colon for the night; Colon is gem of a town; it was just so relaxing to be there; the great weather had a lot to do it. Talking to many people in the town some who lived there and some who were just passing through, they all said how pleasant it was there. Steve was a big fan of Colon as well. We went to a hostel run by a friend of Charlie's called Marcella and spent the evening drinking Brahma beer and just taking it easy. One of the guests of the hostel was an young Italian filmmaker from Milano and she was making Pizza and Pasta with some of the others in the hostel. We ate and drank and talked all evening. Mareclla kept bringing more and more bottles of beer out. We finished the evening off with some Helados (ice cream) and then Marcella started serving glasses of Champage with lemon ice cream melted in it. I was so full by this time I declined having a glass but I did have sip. I think I got to bed about sometime after midnight what a long and eventful day it was.
The next day we did not get up so early and met up with Charlie at his house and then went to one of the local restaurants for lunch. Before lunch, I went for a walk around the centre of Colon. It had rained through the night and it was a bit blustery but I still was enjoying the vibe of being in Colon and just having a stroll. One of thing about Argentina as I mentioned before there are lots of dogs in this country. In Colon, the dogs just roamed the streets and chased cars and lazed about. Some of the dogs did not seem to belong to anyone. If a dog comes up to me I will pet then and within the space of ten minutes; two pooches adopted me and wanted to be my best friend. One tried following me into a coffee shop. Later, I would see the same two dogs having a rather heated disagreement with each other involving one dog being chased down the street.
Before we returned to Buenos Aires; we paid a visit to a friend of Charlie's. I should made a note of the woman's name (I may update this copy). She was a rock collector. She had an impressive collection of Agates, Jaspers and Amethysts. She alo had petrified fruits; one of them seemed to be an Avacodo. She got into rock collecting many years ago when she picked up a rock as she was herding her geese by the river and she was about to throw the rock by them to get their attention. There was water sealed inside the rock that made a noise as she brought the rock near her ear as she was about to throw it; that was how she got into rock collecting and she went the library and learned all about Geology and has been collecting rocks for at least a decade. She kept her rocks in a shed by the family house. She also sold some of the rocks but most of the special pieces were part of her personal collection on display.
I was really glad to have gotten see another part of Argentina outside of Buenos Aires. This counttry is a really big place and there is a good amount of things to see. You need at a least month to begin to see the country. I was planning to go South to Pueto Valdes to see the Penguins but I found out they were not there at this time of year. I could have gone to see some Elephant Seals and Sea Lions but I thought, naw not without the Penguins. In Buenos Aires, I did see many flocks of Parrots flying about. Also, around Colon, I saw many types of birds. I am sure I am going to see birds and other creatures here in Iguazu. There are signs around the hotel telling people not to feed the monkeys.