Touring in the marshlands (59 K)
Marshlands of Iberá
(Esteros de Iberá)
The Argentine Mesopotamia is a unique region, embraced by the rivers Paraná to the west and Uruguay to the east, it comprises three provinces: Missions with its waterfalls and Jesuit ruins, Corrientes with its marshlands and Entre Rios with its range of hills and the delta.
The Natural Reservation of Iberá was created in 1983 to preserve the great variety of flora and fauna present. It was the old bed of the river Paraná; it has more than 1 million hectares and includes a complex net of swamps, bogs, stagnant lakes, lagoons, natural slough and courses of water of pluvial origin.
The Reservation of Iberá that means "brilliant waters" in Guarani language, is 250 kilometres long (from Northeast to Southwest), and 150 kilometres wide. The great mass of vegetation has a great capacity of rainwater retention; it rains from 1,200 to 1,500 millimetres annually.
A fourth part of this rainwater drains into the river Corrientes, (the only natural drainage of the system), and from the river Corrientes into the river Paraná. The rest is, to a great extent. evaporated due to its large surface and the flatness of the land, or metabolised by the vegetation.
Those swamp lands - approximately 700,000 hectares - are formed by the accumulation of rainwater on low-lying lands during the heavy rains.
The marshy lands- more than 50,000 hectares - are big deposits of stagnated water with a depth of one to three meters, covered by a great quantity of floating aquatic plants or those that arise from the bottom.
There are also camalotales, floating formations of plants that hide the surface of the water and that are formed in the banks of the rivers and lagoons.
The lagoons - more than 30,000 hectares - cover a fourth part of the surface of the Reservation. With well-defined coasts they are frequently formed by sloughs.
These sloughs originate in the camalotales. Soil is deposited on these floating formations either by the action of wind or water. This produces the formation of a layer of soil so that different sorts of plants and even trees ceibo (Erythrina crita.galli), laurel (Laurus nobilis), curupí (Anadenanthera macrocarpa)) grow here.


Victoria Regia (62 K)
Flora is plentiful. On the surface of the water one finds irupés or nenuphars, camalotes, lentejas, repollitos, irises, water hyacinths and small ferns; in the sloughs, there are achiras, all sorts of weeds and trees like laurels (Laurus nobilis), sarandíes and big totoras. On the islands there are ombúes (Phytolacca dioica) and on the coasts there are jacarandáes (Jacarandá mimosifolia), lapachos (Tabebuia ipe), ceibos (Erythrina crista-galli), willows, curupíes (Anadenanthera macrocarpa), timbóes (Cathormion polyanthum), guayabíes (Patagonula americana) and urundays (Astronium balansae). The most common palms are the yatay, pindó (Arecastrum romanzoffianum) and caranday.


Yacaré (30K)
The fauna is also very rich. Its most famous animal is the yacaré with its two varieties (Caiman latirostris and Caiman crocodylus yacaré); the carpincho (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris), the biggest rodent in the world; the deer of the swamps (Blastocerus dichotomus), the biggerst one in South Americans; the river wolf (Lutra longicaudis); the black howling monkey (Aloutta caraya); the brown corzuela (Mazama gouazoubira); the mountain cat and the mane wolf or aguará-guazú (Chrysocyon brachyurus).
The birds deserve a separate chapter. One can watch and listen to hundreds of them, they are of the most varied colouring; from the big ñandu, a bird similar to the ostrich but smaller in size to different types of herons; the American stork; several kinds of eaglets; snipes; flickers; kingfishers; humming birds, jay; a great variety ducks.
The amount of vipers and amphibians is very big.
At 120 kilometres from the City of Mercedes in Corrientes there is Iberá Visitors Centre which has an exhibition room with material about the history, geography, fauna, flora and other aspects of the region.
From there one can take the paths through the forest and skirting the lagoon one can observe the biological diversity of flora and fauna.


Jangadero (21 K)
In order to observe the birds and aquatic plants, one can also visit the lagoon guided by baqueanos (experts) and have the opportunity of walking along the sloughs. Other possible activities are riding, photographic safaris and fishing
Crossing the lagoon through the " pedraplen " and the bridge, one arrives at Colonia Carlos Pellegrini , a population of less than 1,000 inhabitants. With typical adobe, wood and straw constructions, Carlos Pellegrini can also be the starting point for the visit.