Date: Thursday 22 September 2022

Trajectory: Pampa del Indio – Tantanacuy Ecolodge

Distance covered: 230 km

No breakfast at hotel as owner Carlos had forgotten to buy anything, so off to Shell where I grabbed some coffee, filled two 20 litre jerrycans with diesel and bought some cans of beer for my sojourn in the outback.

Then drove the 130 km to Tantanacuy Ecolodge. Actually, because of misleading instructions and the total absence of signage and people to ask it was more like 230 in total. The only vehicles I saw were logging trucks, deforesting the Chaco.

A consequence of this was that the roads were not only badly cratered and with accumulated sand banks – there were also logs all over the place. Twice I had to stop to clear a way through.

I finally arrived at Tantanacuy ….

… parked up, and went over to the guest house ..

… where a late lunch was waiting for me …

… washed down by a drink made from prickly pears – novel, and very tasty.

Lots of blue-crowned parakeets around the place I’m staying …

… and not very popular with owner Luis as they attack all the cacti for the water content

After lunch we went for a walk through the Impenetrable …

…. leading into a dusk merienda with bonfire … 

… and staying a while to see the sunset.

On the way back to the guest house where I am staying we saw a scissor-tailed nightjar sitting in the road, which is today’s bird of the day.

Not quite sure what tomorrow has in store, but looking forward to it.