Tranquility

Day 17-19: Reserva Provincial Esteros Del Iberá, Argentina. “I wish I'd have packed a couple more memory cards”, I whispered to Karen as we watched the 10ft black caiman basking in the early morning sunshine. The low battery light flickered on the Canon and I fumbled around in my pocket for a replacement. There was no mistaking it, this was a wildlife lovers and photographers paradise.

It's funny how things happen isn't it? Take our trip to the Esteros Del Iberá. This all started back in November of last year at our village school Christmas fête. A friend of ours was looking after the second-hand book stall and knowing of our travel plans, had ear-marked a copy of BBC book Andes to Amazon: A Guide to Wild South America. Delighted with the find Karen and I, promptly paid the £2 for the well read hardback and made our way home to review our new purchase in front of the log fire. With amazing images from across the continent the book provided a great reference source for our upcoming trip and, of all places, called out a remote area in North East Argentina as being amongst the best pace in the whole of South America to watch wildlife. And from that moment, both Karen and I knew we would be visiting Reserva Provincial Esteros Del Iberá to see for ourselves.

Not the easiest place in the world to get to - that's for sure; Lonely Planet advise against attempting this journey using public transport alone, so clearly Karen and I just had to get to this remote area using only local service buses. But after 3 days of hard travelling in our ultimate quest for “nowhere”, we ended up slap, bang in the middle of it! Arriving at the sleepy village of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, we immediately felt at home; dirt roads, very few vehicles and some of the friendliest people we had met so far on our journey just added to this quaint little place's natural charm.

Covering an area of some 5,000 square miles, the National Park is immense with shallow lakes fed only by rainwater and marshland thick with vegetation. Water plants have accumulated to form dense floating islands across these wetlands that provide a fertile habitat and home to a stunning array of life: Beautiful orange-coloured marsh deer, the rare maned wolf, troops of howler monkeys (officially the world's noisiest animal), busy capybaras (giant 10 stone guinea pigs), copyu, otters, several types of bat and well over 350 species of bird-life.

In this glorious climate, those deep blue lakes and rivers looked so inviting – but we daren't even think even think about it! For these meandering waterways were home to shoals of deadly piranha fish and sinister caimen - South America's man eating crocodiles that in this protected environment grow to a length of 20 feet or more.

And not wanting to be selfish, Karen and I have contributed back to this fragile ecosystem by providing the billion or so mosquito population with gourmet dining for the last three days. Our tender white flesh now is now fit for a good game of dot-to-dot; last night we managed to make an elephant in a tutu on Karen's back!!

On the subject of food, we've had our challenges there too! With restaurants not opening here until around 9 or 10 o'clock at night it's taken a while to get our biological clocks in to Argentinian time. And then there's the variety: If you love steak you should get yourself here. If your a vegetarian then don't even think about travelling in Argentina: Save your money; go and buy yourself a new car or something! In our quest for something other that huge chunks of meat (which by the way are simply delicious – so succulent, so tender), Karen decided to order herself a salad sandwich. The locals, fearing that Karen must have made a mistake, or chosen the wrong Spanish phrase, decided to pop a couple of quarter pounders in there just for good measure. Which suited me just fine!