Tigre Deltaventura

This time I was determined to get close to the plants and wildlife in the Paraná Delta. Deltaventura offered a day trip with a barbecue lunch and two activities.  When I booked it I did not realise that I was going to have to catch the public river boat, a stressful experience for me as the boat was packed and I had no idea when to get off! 

After an hour and a half, during which we had made many stops to drop people off at their houses, we reached Bonanza, an Italian-style house dating back to 1898 on Rio Carapachay.

Sieta sangrias (Cuphea fruitcosa) Lythraceae 

I had a short trip down the river in a canoe before lunch, which was Asado, the Argentian national dish, a selection of barbecued meat, together with salad and bread.  We sat outside shaded under a large tree surrounded by dogs and hens looking hopeful.

After lunch I went on guided trek around the 60 hectares of land surrounding the house during which I learnt a lot about the delta.  The Paraná river system is the second largest in South America after the Amazon. Where the Paraná river flows into the Rio de la Plata (the only river delta on earth that empties into another river) a cluster of islands has formed from sediment deposited by the river with a fan-shaped array of tiny waterways passing between them to form the delta.

We walked along the man-made dykes surrounded by plains, marshland  and lagoons.  The dykes have been planted with Australian Pines in 4 rows to stablise them.  There are many exotic plants, forestry plantations of willow (Salix) and poplar (Populus) and glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) from Asia.  The sedge which grows in the marshland is native and acts as a sponge to control the water levels. We had to walk quickly through the densely vegetated areas as we were plagued with mosquitoes, which were particularly abundant due to the recent floods.

Native and Exotic Bamboo

The floating plant Camalote (water hyacinth) covered the vast lagoons.  I could spot the purple flowering spikes in the distance.

Camalote (Eichhornia azurea) Pontederiaceae

The Marsh deer  (Blastocerus dichotomus) has almost disappeared from this region but capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), the neotropical river otter (Lontra longicaudis) and coypu (Myocastor coypus) are still present and protected from hunting.

Water Plantain   Sagittaria

Pindo (Syagrus romanzoffiana) Queen Palm

In the late afternoon with the sun going down, the place was alive with dragonflies glistening in the sun.  Walking along the horse trekking track, I spotted this lizard basking in the sun, luckily before it spotted me!

Blue butterfly on Daisy

Finally catching the riverboat back at 6pm, a more relaxing journey after a long day. Then I had to stand on the train for an hour before finally getting home at 9pm.