Date: Thursday, 06 October 2022

Trajectory:  Cuatro Bocas to Chivilcoy

Distance covered: 674 km

Long, hard drive today, starting in rain and mostly overcast until blinding sun in the eyes at the end.

No photos taken today, except for one bird of the day: a female spectacled tyrant.

Not sure how far I’ll make tomorrow but keen to get to SM as soon as possible now.

Date: Wednesday, 05 October 2022

Trajectory:  Posadas to Cuatro Bocas

Distance covered: 420 km

A hard drive today,  with little to report other than a warning light that came up on the dash to change the transmission belt. Lost a few hours locating a new belt and a willing mechanic but eventually was back on the road with my wallet US$100 or so lighter.

No hotels at all on or near the RN14 until I finally spotted a YPF Motel at Cuatro Bocas.

Nothing here other than a service station and no cooking facilities so I guess it’s fast food tonight. Or I could open a jar of Rabbit Escabeche I bought out of curiosity a few days ago.

We’ll see. Bird of the day, spied from the car window, a Maguari stork.

Tomorrow, on to Gualeguaychú.

Date: Tuesday, 04 October 2022

Trajectory:  San Ignacio to Posadas

Distance covered: 60 km

Left cabin in San Ignacio  for the first of three Jesuit ‘missions’ in the area – there were many more, but these three were handy: San Ignacio, Loreto and Santa Ana.

San Ignacio is the best preserved/reconstructed, with much ‘replacement’ stonework robbed out of the other two sites.

The entrance to the main ‘temple’ is perhaps the most known Mission archaeology in Argentina, being reproduced frequently, but the whole site is rather splendid.

There were dozens of grey-breasted martins nesting in and flying around the inner walls of the temple, making the species an ideal choice for bird of the day.

I only visited these three missions, but there are/were many more:

Loreto was interesting to me, as I had visited Loreto in Corrientes, whence the population of the Loreto in Misiones had fled to get away from slave-traders. 

 The ruins here were only partly uncovered, making the overgrown site a more natural place.

Similarly with Santa Ana, although there was a little more original stonework there. 

The plan shows the original layout. All the missions (also known as ‘reductions’) had the same features – main temple, chapel, workers’ quarters, Jesuit quarters, orchard and vegetable garden, cemetery, etc. – but the layouts varied considerable.

I then spent a couple of hours chasing an endemic bird (yellow-headed blackbird) but he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, so I dipped again. You can’t win them all.

Spent the night in a quite cabin just outside Posadas. It was a long way from anywhere,  so I cooked myself some onion soup for supper.

Tomorrow the journey south continues, with intentions to spend the night somewhere near Bonpland, Corriente. The hard driving commences too, but hey, I have to get home.

Date: Monday, 03 October 2022

Trajectory:  Puerto Iguazú to San Ignacio

Distance covered: 250 km

Strange noises in the night turned out to be a nest by my bedroom window – can’t identify the species.

A picnic breakfast of leftovers and a visit to the humming bird garden before leaving Puerto Iguazú.

It’s a very small garden but is full of birds, mainly humming birds.

Here’s one of the humming birds in the garden – there should be between 10 and 16 species if you know how to distinguish them (I’m learning!).

So I don’t [yet] know what kind of bird that is, and won’t have time to work on the 250 photos I took until the journey is over.

My bird of the day is a thrush-like wren that I spotted high in a palm tree in the street outside – not a great photo, but a lifer.

I liked this sign in the bird garden …

… and I made friends with a turtle there (no idea what species).

After nearly two and a half hours I had the final remains of my picnic breakfast and drove on to San Ignacio, to the friendly hotel La Toscana where I was ready for a siesta.

Tomorrow I hope to visit the Jesuit ruins at San Ignacio and if time Loreto and Sta Ana before continuing south.

Date: Sunday, 02 October 2022

Trajectory:  Puerto Iguazú and environs

Distance covered: 50 km

First stop of the day was the Güira Oga rescue Centre, fortunately just around the corner from my cabin.

I had been there before a few years ago, but it has been ‘improved’ in the sense of the whole experience, with much more information provided by the guide, the whole trip being more of an educational experience.

As before we set off in a train to see some of the animals that cannot be returned to the wild: those intended for rerelease are kept on an island 40 km away.

Different animals from my last visit, with more birds than I remember. From these I chose my bird of the day, a bird I had not seen before: the macuco, English name solitary tinamou.

There were other animals too – I liked the jaguarundi …

… and the southern tamandua – the last one I saw was a road casualty.

On to the Iguazu Falls which were as splendid as ever, from a distance …

And close up.

I was hoping to get a picture of the great dusky swift – but dipped this time. It would have looked like this (Park publicity photo).

Some of the walkways have been improved at the falls since my last visit. It was very hot, and I was glad to get back into the car and drive on to the point where RN 101 enters the National Park. This is a famous birding strip and I was interested to see the someone had built a hide a couple of kilometres in (forgot to take a photo).

Then back to the cabin for a second night. Tomorrow I start the long journey home.

Date: Saturday, 01 October 2022

Trajectory:  Oberá – Puerto Iguazú

Distance covered: 392 km

A day of bad weather and journey changes. Started with a good breakfast alone in a huge dining room with five staff attending me.

Good coffee and lots of fruit. I stole some cheese and ham and a banana for lunch and set out into the fourth (or is it fifth?) day of heavy rain. Misiones much tidier, more civilised than Chaco, with countryside completely different and excellent roads (highways at least).

Drove up to the border with Brazil at Bernardo Irigoyen …

… a busy, bustling border town full of discount shops for Brazilian tourists …

… and drove on. I had arranged to stay two nights in the Karadya Ecolodge (photo from previous visit) …

… but there was a misunderstanding with the encargardo and it was not to be so I drove on. (I received an email from the owner in the evening, apologetic, offering to refund my reservation fee – he seems to have difficulty communicating with his employee too!).

Karadya is one of a number of lodges within a 10-12 km defined eco-corridor, in the middle of which is a rather wonderful ecobridge.

I took the RN 101 for Puerto Iguazu, which took a lot of finding, and drove west on a rough, muddy dirt road through the Iguazu National Park. Here I saw a number of animals including this (I think) agouti …

… and my bird of the day, a giant wood rail.

Arrived in Puerto Iguazú late afternoon and found a cabin for two nights, very comfortable and with basic cooking facilities.

I’ve lost the two days planned for Karadya but will use them to get earlier to San Martín (or for anything interesting that suggests itself, perhaps one or two Mission sites). I do have a full day of activities planned for tomorrow, to be reported in due course.