Sunsets and safari’s

With my brain ready to explode from Spanish lessons (only had 5 how rubbish am I!) it was time to escape to the sanctuary of the 'middle of nowhere' again and Carlos Pellegrini fitted the bill. Set in the wetlands of the Esteros del Ibera it is a tiny village with only a few hundred inhabitants of the human kind but thousands upon thousands of the animal kind. We spent the first few hours wandering round the dusty streets of town with horses just freely roaming around them and random houses that doubled as the local stores, all so different from Cordoba! That evening after catching a great sunset we headed out on a night boat trip looking for wildlife, so with the aid of a huge torch we set off into the darkness. Wasn't long before the torch caught the eyes of animals reflecting in the reeds or on the water – we'd pull right up to the river banks and alongside caiman (alligators), they just sat there with a smile on their face probably thinking hmmm dinner?! Other than caiman we also managed to see lots of deer and birds, was a cool little trip. The next morning we went out on a horse ride through the marsh lands with a local gaucho who didn't stop talking and laughing the whole time, he filled us in on everything about life in the village even down to the first person who got television 3 years ago and the lack of sex education… although we had no idea what he was finding so amusing! That afternoon we went back out on the boat and saw hundreds of caiman of all shapes and sizes. We also saw loads of Capybaras which are cool (for a big rodent) and a few anacondas although not fully grown ones thankfully. Was an amazing place where at every turn the boat took we were luck enough to see another group of animals from birds, monkeys, snakes, deer, caiman, capybaras, spiders (scary nests of 1000's of them!) and even a slightly mad Irishman that jumped out from behind a tree on us – we'd met him one rainy afternoon in El Chalten months ago 'Top of the morning to ya!'