the drive up from mercedes to colonia pellegrini (parque esteros del ibera) was a rough dirt road. i’ve driven on much worse, but that was when ushi was in better shape. about half way through we got a flat tire…and because i caught it a bit late, the tire is now irreparable (it was in pretty bad shape to begin with). afterwards, we decided to travel at a more moderate speed of 20-30mph, and it worked out fine.

the park is a bit underwhelming. it’s quite large, but you can only visit a very small portion of it. there are 2 trails (the longer one is 1.5km roundtrip), horseback/bike riding (through the little town) and boat tours. after sprinting through the mosquito infested trails, we caught a boat tour around the park. it was actually pretty cool, and since we started later in the day, we were out there during sunset, when all of the birds started flying out to the islands. at times, the birds filled the sky like bats coming out of caves (or, perhaps more fitting, like mosquitos on one of the trails). the major animals around here are capibaras, caimans, deer and birds (storks, parrots, etc.). we also got to walk around a bit on one the islands — it was pretty solid, but kinda like walking on a trampoline. the guide at one point jumped up and down on the ground, and the earth moved several inches. i tried it as well….but, after jumping pretty high (and landing pretty hard), left a 6in dent in the ground (…almost falling through).

back on land, we camped at another mosquito laden site near the water. the sky is so clear and the stars so bright.