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Ibera Wetlands

A late night drive to the Ibera Wetlands is not for the weak hearted, and as it turns out I am incredibly weak hearted.  Allow me to set the scene...

It started out as lovely as you can imagine.  We met a really great French couple and decided to split the cost of a ride to the wetlands in a 4X4 rather than waiting to take the bus the next morning.  After waiting around in the intense heat we were all relieved to be driving down the road with the windows open.  As we drove along the night sky was so filled with fire flies and stars that it almost looked as though we were passing well lit cities in the distance. Beautiful.  As we bounced down the unpaved road we could hear rocks hit the sides of the automobile, and soon enough they were not just hitting the car, they were landing inside.  A bit annoying, but no big deal.  But, as time passed I began to feel little movements around me, behind my back, on my foot, and didn't something strange just land on my hand?  I assumed it was just the heat and tried to push this uncomfortable thought out of my mind.   But then, why was Guellem looking at my lap like that?  I looked down and saw a huge black beattle.  I froze and he was kind enough to pick it up and throw it out of the window.  It was then that I looked around and realized that no, these were not rocks flying in the window but big black nasty june bugs.  In short, this was my worst nightmare come alive.  It was AWFUL.  Abran might say other wise but I swear had it not been for the fact that I was sitting between Abran and Guillem I might have truly lost my mind.  Three hours later I lost my ability to speak and was left silently pointing at each new bug until someone saw me and picked it up and threw it out the window.  I have never been so happy to be done with a car ride as I was that night.

The good news is that things got much much better.  If you excuse the bugs in our room and the dinning hall and the fact that we were kind of ripped off by the woman in Mercedes, we had an amazing time.  In the jungle we saw Carpinchos (the largest rodent rodent in the world, which look remarkably like the beavers in the movie the Chronicles of Narnia), monkeys, wild cats, huge lizards and many many different birds and plants. What's more is that because it is spring time all of the animals had babies. We took a boat ride that was just like being in the Everglades of Florida, except here we were able to walk on floating islands of vegetation.  We also went on a horseback ride that was pretty boring and not recommended. 

At night the stars were incredible.  We could see every last one of them, including the milky way galaxy.  Our old friend Orion was there too, but down here he stands on his head.

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