Date: Saturday 3 September 2022

Trajectory:  Las Lomitas – Ingenio Suarez – Reserva Natural Juarez

Distance covered: 180 km

Today we reached our furthest point west, not far from the border with the province of Salta. 

This is an area where there were once a number of ‘fortines’, reminders today of past military involvements in many international conflicts. Here’s a reconstructed lookout tower in Las Lomitas.

We first travelled to the Laguna Yema, very dry at the moment. Here we were following the line of a old railway track, long abandoned, that once joined Formosa and Salta. The water levels in the lake were very low.

This is what remains of what was once a busy station.

A lot of dirt roads today, on one of which we saw my bird of the day, a black-legged seriema – a bird I had long wanted to see.

Our second stop was the Reserva Natural de Formosa.

Here we walked the trails, and saw many ‘conejo de los palos’, the Chacoan mara. This one kindly posed for us.

I was impressed by the size and variety of the cactus in this part of Formosa. It was certainly very arid, and we saw several dead cows and burros, accompanied by large flocks of black vultures keeping the landscape clean. Pity they can’t also pick up the litter that is accumulating everywhere. 

We were invited for mate and supper by the Park rangers and didn’t leave until late.

Then it was a drive back to our hotel in Ingeniero Juarez, dinner and a good night’s sleep.