Category: Argentina
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San Francisco, Parque Nacional Calilegua
April 20-28, 2023. Jujuy Province, Argentina After visiting Purmamarca and the Yungas forest near San Salvador de Jujuy, I caught a bus up to Ledesma (now known as Libertador General San Martin) which is the closest town to the lowland parts of Calilegua National Park. This is one of Argentina’s biggest parks, and it covers…
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First days in the Yungas
Apr 15-17, 2023 I had been in Argentina for nearly two months and I still hadn’t visited the most ecologically diverse region: the northwest. The northwest of Argentina is so diverse because of its nearly-tropical latitude and massive elevational range. The lowest areas in the east represent the western limit of the immense, scrubby Chaco…
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Karadya Birding Lodge
Apr 6-11, 2023 This story starts back in early February: while I was staying at Finca Ecologica San Luis in Costa Rica, I met a couple of birders from California: Kathe and John Hendrickson. They put me in touch with Fernando Pocho Cabral, the manager of Karadya Birding Lodge here in Misiones. Thank you both…
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Toucans and Waterfalls
Iguazú falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the world. It lies on the Iguazu river which forms the border between Argentina and Brazil, so the falls are actually shared between the two countries. Just downstream, the Iguazu flows into the Paraná river, with Paraguay on the other side. Each country has a sizeable…
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El Soberbio (Misiones)
Note: this post and those to follow are SUPER back-dated. I’m posting in June but this is what I was doing in early April… I’m catching up now though! From Posadas, I caught the bus to El Soberbio (the Suburb) which is a very small town on Argentina’s border with Brazil. The birding there was…
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Campo San Juan
After heading back to Buenos Aires for a night (met a bunch of guys from Bahía Blanca who were in town to see a soccer game and we made pizza in the hostel kitchen) I loaded into the van with Pedro and Guille, the tour leaders for Huella Tours. We headed north towards Misiones. In…
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Last morning of birding in Patagonia
The shadow of the hill had retreated to shade a smaller portion of the valley; crickets trilled softly in the grass nearby. A Great Shrike-Tyrant mercilessly chased a Pygmy-Owl back and forth in the scrubby vegetation. A peaceful scene.“Ay, boludo! Que caliente!” Exclaimed Gero as he burned his tongue on the tea he had just…
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In the Shadow of El Chalten
The day after Cristobal and I visited the glacier, we headed up to the nearby town of El Chalten, the town closest to Fitz Roy peak. The mountain’s original name is actually “El Chalten” which means “The Smoking Peak”, named for the clouds which so frequently cloak its dramatic spire. Skip to the bottom of…
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Perito Moreno Glacier / Return to El Calafate
This is another post without many words, mostly pictures. (Scroll down a bit to skip to the pictures of the glacier). I took the bus back from Ushuaia and checked back into the hotsel in El Calafate. Here’s the ferry the bus took across the Straight of Magellan: The following day I met up with…
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Ushuaia: The World’s Southernmost Birders
Standing on the pebbly shoreline of the Beagle Channel, the southern edge of Tierra del Fuego, I looked at the tiny bundle of grayish feathers foraging among the wrack and seaweed and grinned. “Playerito Rabadilla Blanca” said Lio, my newest birding friend “White-rumped Sandpiper.” He and I both understood the significance of this bird, which…
Backcountry Birding 