March 31, 2014 - Tuesday Puerto Bemberg, Argentina

March 31, 2014 - Monday,  Iguazu National Park

BOTTOM LINE:
Morning jungle hike at Hotel Puerto Bemberg
Afternoon visit to Iguazu Falls

BACK STORY:
We woke up to the end of the big storm that we had experienced for two days.  We learned that there had been 5 inches of rainfall over that period of time, so we could well imagine the run off and conditions of red dirt roads in the area.

Hotel Puerto Bemberg was a beautiful Spanish hacienda style resort.  With a mission bell tower, center courtyard with water fountain, vine covered exterior walkways to rooms, oversized terra cotta pots adorning walkways and reflecting the surrounding red dirt color, an outside pool with covered shade area and a wooden walkway cantilevering out over the canopy of trees, we found ourselves in yet another very classy, but comfortable place to stay.

The dining area extended to the covered decking outside for al fresco dining pleasure.  Inside the common area had an extensive library of books authored by many Argentina philosophers, liberators and historians.  Comfortable over stuffed chairs and couches with task lighting were set in front of a large fireplace.  Colorful local art hung from walls that had been textured and aged for the look of a mission.

After breakfast we hurried to meet our guide for a walk in the jungle bordering the property.  We were gone for 2 1/2 hours and received a good tutorial of the areas flora and fauna.  We saw a few birds, many plants and spiders.  The hotel has a citrus orchard and a garden of pineapples and bananas raised to serve guests.

The owners of the property have huge plantations of trees whose leaves are dried and used for Maite the popular tea like drink of Argentina.  They also produce beer along with many other business endeavors.

At the end of the walk we found out that because of the huge deforestation of this region of Argentina and the planting of pine for commercial use by current Asian land owners(The pulp by the pine is used among other things to make a poor quality paper),
there is no natural animal corridor left.  The natural animal habitat of roaming the land without exposure or threat from one location to another has been wiped out. Animals traveling from one region to another are now found on private property and risk being killed or are found along busy roads unable to compete with a passing vehicle.

Not only are animals threatened but water run off from exposed soil, but it also has threatened aquatic life. The soil is being depleted of vital nutrients needed to sustain vigorous plant growth.  Weather is also affected...all because of a buck!??

After lunch we were picked up by Claudia, a local woman who is supporting her family by driving people from the hotel to the Igauzu Falls once or twice a month.  Her English was limited, but Bruce was once again able to bridge the gap.  He is doing a wonderful job in my estimation and I'm happy to be his travel companion!

The falls were further than we thought.  The cost of the round trip ride would be $80 US...which would bring home a good wage.  Luckily while we were dropped off a couple of young guys asked if they might pay her for a ride to the airport.  Her lucky day!

We paid for our entrance and agreed to meet back at the entry at 5:45.  The park closed at 6pm.

With map in hand, we quickly walked to one of the three train stations and grabbed two of the last seats.  Luckily we had pre-studied a map and decided to go to the furthest two treks and do the third trek the following day when a tour guide would be with us.

The day was very hot and humid.  Thankfully I packed an umbrella for shade rather than wearing a hat that just seems to capture the heat from my head and drip down my face!  The hike was on a well paved and then raised metal trail.  We crossed over a wetland area and I could see all sizes and colors of butterflies dancing above muddy indentations.  Suddenly I began noticing butterflies all around me.

 I could hear the sounds of water movement and could see mist rising above the trees in the distance.  I knew we were getting close to what we had come to see.  I grabbed Bruce's hand because I wanted us to see the Iguazu Falls at the same time.  The river along side of us seemed to be gaining speed when all of a sudden we saw a huge hole where the river seemed to be swallowed up.

We were above the falls at the river level and were able to see the water spill over the boulders.  It was magnificent!  Words cannot describe it.  The sound was like thunder roaring.  The volume was so great and the force so mighty that it literally took our breath away!  I stood watching with tears of mist rolling down my cheeks.  The mist got everyone wet, but it was a welcomed relief from the heat. People slowly meandered around the viewing platform in total awe at the sight of God's creation

We only had an hour left before we needed to meet our driver so we headed to the middle level viewing plat forms.  It gave us a completely different view of the falls...equally magnificent.

Across the river from us was Brazil.  We had been told that the view from that other side was better than the Argentina side.  There was only one viewing platform in Brazil and with the difficulty in getting a tourist visa, we decided that Argentina was good enough for us.  Check out, The Mission-How Great Thou Art, The Piano Guys...on You-Tube.

Claudia picked us up and transported us the 40km back to our hotel for the evening.  A blessed day in nature!

March 30, 2014 - Sunday Puerto Bemberg, Argentina

March 30, 2014 - Sunday,  Puerto Bemberg Hotel

BOTTOM LINE:
Drove to Bemberg via the Jesuit Mission ruins

BACK STORY:
After a very stormy night of high winds, rain, lightening and thunder we were up and packed to catch a 7:30 ride to our next destination with Mario our driver from the estancia.

Mario helped to pack up the car as we reluctantly said good bye to the people at the ranch that had become our family.  As many know, I am a work horse and a person that was born to serve.  At Puerto Valle, because we were virtually the only guests for four days, we were being served continually.  I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed it...but with great appreciation.

The drive to the "Missiones" area of Argentina was slow going.  Red muddy waters ran freely up over roads and into shallow culverts that were filling with silt.  Our conversation with Mario was limited by his English and our Spanish, so we did a lot of laughing.

The history of the missions is one of joy and sadness.  The Jesuit Priests came to the area to save the natives (Guaranies) from being exploited by Spain and being enslaved by Portugal.  They did what is referred to as "reduction."  The priests believed that if they could build a mission and have the natives live within the mission they could protect the people.  Under their protection (not being captured for slavery) they taught them skills for survival in a white man's world.  Skills included wood working to warfare.  At the same time their was an introduction to Catholicism turning away from polygamy and cannibalism.  They learned farming skills and irrigation.  Music was an important teaching tool for the natives.

Unfortunately the church feeling pressure from the governments of Spain and Portugal stopped their support and protection.  The missions were expelled and were left to survive on their own, being brutally attacked, burned and ruined.  Those natives that were able to flew into the jungles survived because of the skills they had learned while being protected by the Jesuit Priests.  The movie "The Mission" tells of this historical and tragic time.

There were 15 missions that were built in Argentina and remained until the Paraguayan destruction in 1817.  We visited Santa Ana, Lady of Loreto and San Ignacio Mini.

Santa Ana was founded in 1633 in Brazil but because of constant attacks by hunters of slaves (Paulistas or Bandeirantes), the missions was moved in 1660 to the location that we visited. This mission had a strength of using nature for survival.

Lady of Loreto was founded in 1610 again in a Brazilian territory.  Similar to Santa Ana, attacks by hunters forced them to move and finally settle in the area that we visited in 1686. Irrigation channels for water were developed in this mission.

Finally San Ignacio Mini migrated to its current location in 1696.  The mission had some 4,000 residents and thrived until it's demise of 1817.  This mission had Boroque and Guitani influences in style and architecture resembling many of the European structure of the time.

With the history of the California Missions and the influences of Spain, the story and styles were very similar in layout...central courtyard of plaza facing the church and surrounded by buildings for living, teaching of skills and gardens for raising foods.

We stopped for lunch about 3pm before continuing up the road.  We had made a HUGE miscalculation in distance.  Mario informed us that we had another 3 hours of driving to get to our next hotel.  Once we were dropped off, Mario needed to return all the way back to Puerto Valle that night!!!  We felt really bad, as the weather was still in "wet" mode.

We made it to Hotel Puerto Bemberg at 6pm.  Mario quickly unloaded our luggage and said his good-byes before driving down the red muddy road which connected to the main paved highway and led him home.  We were very appreciative and tipped him accordingly.

Hotel Puerto Bemberg

our room

pool area

walkway

Reception lounge

March 29, 2014 - Saturday. Puerto Valle, Argentina

March 29, 2014 - Saturday,  Puerto Valle Hotel

BOTTOM LINE:
Tour of Caiman Farm
Hike in forest

BACK STORY:
This morning after another delightful breakfast in a sun filtered room with a river view, we met up with Jose to walk down the estancia road to the caiman farm.  The caiman farm (stinky) is one of the many businesses mentioned that the owners have on the property.

The caiman farm is one of the money makers on the ranch.  Fifty percent of the caimans raised on the ranch are let go back into the wild.  The other fifty percent are killed and the hides are sold for leather.

Local farms and ranchers of the Ibera Wetland areas have been educated about the over hunting of the caimans in the wild.  The caimans were near extinction because of the hunting.  The skins in the past were likely traded for a bottle of booze which did not help the locals or the caiman population.

Through education, the locals now find a nest and alert caiman farms to their location.  The locals are paid per egg in the nest.  The eggs are harvested and very carefully repacked in the same nest material for transport back to the caiman farms.

At the farms the eggs are then repacked into flats of wet straw and put into an incubation room until they hatch.  In the wild the baby caimans begin "chirping" in their shell and the mother caiman has to open the shells to let the babies out.

In the artificial incubation environment, gloved workers help to peel back the shells to expose the baby caiman.  The caimans are tagged as to their nest and family order.  They are then introduced to concrete enclosures as a nested family where they have circulating water and wooden pallets to rest on.

The caimans are fed once daily a mixture of mashed protein, chicken blood and nutrients for healthy growth.  They stay in the enclosures for one year before they are either released into the wild or used for their skin. They growth of the caiman in that year really reflects the "survival of the fittest" theory.  Although the caimans in a given enclosure were all from the same mother and hatched at the same time, some of the caimans have grown to be very large where others are very small.

It was also interesting to see how the instincts of the caimans began playing a major role in their survival from day one.  The babies that had been hatched earlier in the morning were "wild" and made a hissing sound and ran away from any movement that they perceived to be aggressive.  There aren't any "touchy-feeling" moments with these critters...no domestication!

 Babies introduced to water

one year old

albino caiman

caiman claws

There had been a 30% survival rate in the wild for caimans.  That figure had been decreasing as hunting had increased.  Raising caimans on a farm has dramatically increased and improved the success of survival in the wild to about 90%.

Although I didn't like the idea of skins being part of the equation, I understood the greater picture and the fact that the illegal poaching has nearly been eradicated.

We had planned to do a hike in the forest in the afternoon, but after seeing the snake from the horse the day before I bowed out to the outing...Bruce followed.  We then discussed with Jose the possibility of taking a 40 minute ride to his family property to see his development. We agreed to meet after lunch for that outing.

The skies had begun to turn darker and the wind had kicked up.  My heart wasn't into  the trip and luckily Bruce's wasn't either, so we declined.  Jose was relieved.  Thankfully we didn't go as a huge storm blew in and didn't let up until two days later!

We had been invited to join with Jose and three new guests in a typical Argentina bbq for dinner.  We accepted and met in the dining area at 8:30pm.

The storm was fairly violent with thunder and lightening which added a little excitement in meeting our new friends.  There was a travel agent from Buenos Aires (raised in Ireland) who was visiting the estancia for business reasons.  Then there was a ten year old boy with his mother from Portugal, but were British.

The traditional bbq started with what appeared to be french fries but were actually a different root vegetable which seemed more starchy in flavor to the potato.  Next platters of grilled chorizo, blood pudding and sweet breads were brought out.  I looked across the table at Bruce with a sick expression as we vowed to at least have "one bite" of each offering.

Being raised by a father who had survived the great depression, organ meets were among the cheapest available and often served at our family table.  Liver and onions, sweetbreads, heart and one time tongue all adorned our plates.  Complaining or refusal were not options...instead being thankful for what was served along with "cleaning your plate" were expected.  All rules were off at this bbq, however.

I just have a hard time eating sausages.  They are often filled with fat, chopped remains of a butchered animal and unhealthy additives.  I was in a foreign country where who knows what may have been added.  Although it was a delicacy for the people of Argentina, it took a lot of deep breaths to get the fork to my mouth with a grin of appreciation on my face!  I love trying new things, but the "Negro Pudding" (black or blood pudding) was a squishy, soft sausage encased in some form of skin.  I quickly swallowed my bite and smiled.

Thinking that I had passed the test and I could consider that the dinner was over, a huge plate of rib meat arrived in the hands of the servers!  All I could think of was "what kind of cardiac disease exists in the country?"  The people love their beef and lots of it.

March 28, 2014 - Friday. Puerto Valle, Argentina

March 28, 2014 - Thursday,  Puerto Valle Hotel

BOTTOM LINE:
Horse back riding in am
Kayaking in pm

BACK STORY:
This morning we met Jose out at a corral to be fit with our horses for a ride along the river.  Jose has grand dreams of having a "glamping" tourist business on his families property down river.  After graduating from the University he traveled, lived and worked in England to learn the English language.  He knew that if he wanted to succeed in attracting foreign eco-tourists, he would need to know English.

While in England, he worked with horses and played polo...both which he is accomplished in and loves.  He was quick in getting us ready and seeing what needed to be adjusted.

Bruce and I had recalled the last horseback riding experience being in Costa Rica near a volcano with our daughter Kimberly and our niece Jenine.  It gave us little confidence knowing that it had been 14 years ago!

My horse looked like the largest one and I questioned that because I was the smallest rider.  They had specially selected my horse because it was "tranquil for the Senora!"

Tranquil was an understatement...getting the horse to move was my first challenge.  The next was keeping the horse on the trail, following the other horses.  Mine was happy to slowly walk on the soft grassy edge of the path trying to grab a bite of tree leaves without being caught!  Unfortunately his path put the rider (me) at jeopardy of getting scratched by bushes and trees.  Getting a little firm did the trick of proving who was boss.

The saddles that we had did not have a horn to hold onto and felt a little loose.  My reign was a flat, crude piece of hard, thin hide that resembled our dog Maizy's raw hide chewy!  A little "self talk" calmed my nerves as I got into the cadence of the horses stride and directed our path...that was until Jose and I spotted a snake slither into the bush at the same time.  I calmly asked him if it was poisonous and he answered, "very!"  Great, now I was watching both tree limbs and the ground a little closer.

The ride was about four hours.  On the way back Jose asked if maybe we would like to go out again in the afternoon and he would teach us how to play polo.  Although the gesture was very kind...there was no way that our hind ends could take another ride!  We politely declined and dismounted as quickly as our aching bodies allowed.

Because there were no other guests at the estancia, Jose was hired to solely entertain us and take us on excursion of our liking.  He was so passionate about helping us experience whatever we wanted that we felt obliged to do any and everything.  We set up a kayak trip for the afternoon.

The kayaks were waiting for us at the river's edge at 4pm.  It was an overcast afternoon which would help protect us from the sun rays and heat.  Bruce and I had a sit-on-top tandem kayak.  Because of our experience in Bariloche with the very unstable kayak we had, we were very curious about this kayak.  Given the knowledge that parana fish and caimans were in the river, we didn't want to take any chances of sitting in a kayak that might easily flip!  Thankfully the kayaks felt good as we paddled away from shore!

Our paddle was about 3 hours and was up river from the ranch...the opposite direction from the boat ride the evening before.  Unfortunately there were no padded seats over the hard plastic molded seat impressions.  I brought a folded towel that helped until it compacted from river water.

We endured and had a nice paddle up into another inlet where there were downed trees and green plants floating on the water.  Birds and butterflies flitted around giving the feeling of a healthy environment.

As we headed back I looked at the shoreline, loving every moment...being thankful for the enjoyment of the awesome area.

March 27, 2014 - Thursday. Puerto Valle, Argentina

March 27, 2014 - Thursday,  Puerto Valle Hotel

BOTTOM LINE:
Relaxing morning
Boat Ride on river

BACK STORY:
Not much to report.  Had a relaxing morning and decided to use the two bikes that had been calling to us. Thankfully the tires were inflated but there was no height adjustment for seats or handle bars...no matter, we were off.

We meandered down a red dirt road in search of any monkeys that might be calling.  Since we were on private property we had no fear of getting lost.  All roads would eventually lead back to the hotel. The following are pictures taken around the ranch.

Lawn art

drunken tree (bottle shape)

pollination of drunken tree blossom

hibiscus

Bird of Paradise

Tree frog

We passed a building that was set up with three screened walls for a BBQ area.  Tables, chairs and a bar were visible with a view of the rio.

We passed the living quarters of the gauchos or the permanent employees of the ranch.  Then we picked up a very pungent odor...a caiman farm.

Circling back the road led past a eucalyptus tree nursery equipped with automatic sprinkler and irrigation systems, screening and rows upon rows of saplings.  A tractor towed flats of foot high, little green trees with a red blush tops to a staging area for forest planting.

eucalyptus saplings

transporting for planting

harvest

The multipurpose ranch had a diversity in its business plan and seemed to be thriving with the endeavors we saw.

After a 2pm lunch,  we met Jose for a 4pm boat ride out on the Parana Rio for Bruce to go fishing.  I went for the ride and picture taking.  Our start was not good.  As we waited on the dock Jose, in a controlled shout called out to "get the boat plug!"  The floor of the 20 foot outboard boat was filling with water. The boat had been launched without checking for the plug!  In no time the plug arrived, was installed and a pump began sucking the water out of the boat.

The size of the river was quite wide and resembled a lake more than a river.  We traveled up river a short distance and turned up into an inlet that had downed trees giving more of a habitat for fish.  It was like going up into an Amazon River tributary...a real jungle with vines and floating logs.

resort dock

Jose taking us up the Parana River

Quiet arm of river

While Bruce got his line wet, Jose steered the boat looking for things that might be of interest to teach us about the river habitat or a picture moment for me to enjoy.

bird 1

bird 3

bird 2

One thing we found was what appeared to be an abandoned camp set up with a make-shift canvas tent and tree posts.  Jose told us that the country has had a problem with drugs coming in from Paraguay and Brazil.  The large Parana River that separates the countries makes an easy way of smuggling illegal contraband.  The camp was most likely that of the Argentina military.  We bought into the story.

homeless camp

Minutes later the story was proven wrong when we spotted a man, his dog and his young son rowing into the deep inlet.  The camp was the man's home.  He rowed up near us, was very polite and wore a clean shirt, pants and a hat.  He obviously was very poor and was out trying to catch a fish for dinner, but had no luck.  We gave him what snacks and fruit we had for which he was very grateful.

The poverty in this country is not easily visible, but when it rears it's ugly head it is suffocatingly sad. I could not look into his eyes as it would reflect a hard time that I had in my own life...a time when your pride and confidence yields to the unfortunate situation.  He quietly rowed off leaving me with questions of what had been witnessed. "Help the orphans and widows, help the impoverished" were echoes in my heart.  You don't know what you don't know.  Bless the needy!

Although the birds were in abundance, the fish were not interested...if there were any!??
We headed back to the estancia with another gorgeous sunset to our backs.  This sunset was different however.  On the horizon silhouetted against the darkening sky we could see large high voltage electrical lines.  The power source was at the large dam down river from us.

A number of years ago there was a disturbing movie made about the construction of the dam, the flooding of the river banks and displacement of native people.  The ranch that we were staying at was battling the constant rising waters and erosion of the back.  Large chunks of grass and soil were being taken daily by the river and steps for stabilizing the edge were being taken.