IBERÁ NATIONAL PARK

Map of Iberá National Park — click to enlarge

INTRO

About weekly, I reminisce on Iberá National Park. Home to the second largest wetlands in the world, the park absolutely brims with unique wildlife. While exploring Iberá, you’ll cross paths with capybaras, kayak next to caiman, and even amble next to anacondas. From sharing the road with horses to the not-inconsequential amount of wagon wheels around, the whole region has a countryside, almost cowboy-esque feel.

There are multiple entrances, called portals, used to enter the park, most of which are in adjoining towns with visitor accommodations (…hard to put a guesthouse in the middle of the wetlands). We stayed in the town of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini by the Laguna Iberá portal, given it had an abundance of activities available, cheap campgrounds, and accessibility via public transit from Buenos Aires. Carlos Pellegrini enchanted me just as much as the park. Given we stayed there and utilized the Laguna Iberá and Uguay portals, this guide will specifically cover exploring the park from this perspective!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Duration: 5-6 days — many Argentinians make the trip to Iberá for a long weekend, but we would highly recommend going for longer to have time to do a variety of excursions and explore the town of Carlos Pelligrini.

When to go: We visited in early April, which was ideal for cooler weather during autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. People say that April and May are great for moderate weather, while the Argentine spring from September to November is equally cool but much rainier. The rainy season allows access by boat to more of the park, and the famous horse-drawn canoes only operate during this time of the year.

Accommodations + facilities: There are many guesthouses in Carlos Peligrini. There are two campsites, the Municipality Campground and Camping Camba Cua. We stayed at Camping Camba Cua and LOVED it. It was really peaceful and had nice, shaded cooking areas (called quinchos), showers, and toilets. Apparently, the Municipality Campground tends to get more crowded and is a little less clean, though it has WiFi, which our campground didn’t. Note that you need to bring your own tent for either campground.

Food + water: Food isn’t too expensive at local restaurants, and while there is no grocery store or supermarket, there are a couple mini-markets where you can buy a decent variety of food for prices comparable to the rest of Argentina.

Guide or no guide: It’s easy to travel to the park independently, but exploring within the park almost always requires going with a guide. See below under “Things to Do” for more details about arranging excursions.

Difficulty: This is a place that has adventure for everyone — there’s a huge variety of activities, so you can choose your own level of difficulty based on what you’re up for.

Make sure you have: CASH! There is no ATM or Western Union in Colonia Carlos Peligrini, and almost everywhere is cash only. We met a couple who arrived, then ended up having to turn around and go right back to Mercedes because they thought they’d be able to take money out in town.

Primary costs: The guesthouses and lodges in town are rather pricey (upwards of 80 USD a night per person), and we found it hard to find information on them until we actually arrived. The two campgrounds in town are really affordable though! We paid 1800 pesos per night, per person at Camping Camba Cua. Under “Things to Do" below, you can see a detailed breakdown of what each excursion cost us.

THINGS TO DO

Exploring Iberá will largely take place through excursions from town into the park. Nearly all the excursions in Iberá are done through agencies — largely, because you need a boat to explore the wetlands, which most of us do not tend to travel with. If you’re staying at a guesthouse, they’ll likely be able to organize your excursions for you, or point you to an agency who can do so. The nicest guesthouses include excursions in their accommodation price. We wanted to price-shop a bit, so ended up walking around town and stopping by different tour agencies or taking down numbers listed on signs and WhatsApping them for prices and availability. We didn’t organize any excursions before, and were totally fine to do so once we showed up even though we came on one of the busiest weeks of the year (Semana Santa a.k.a. Easter Week). You can also find a list of activity operators here, though many of the listed contact numbers cannot be reached without a local phone number. Below is a summary of all the excursions we did, as well as the price we were charged per person in Argentine pesos (April 2023).

  • Sunset boat ride: 5500

  • Kayaking: 3000

  • Horseback riding (cabalgata): 3000

  • Bird watching tour: 9000

  • Night hike: 2500

  • Hiking trails by Visitor Center: free, no guide neede during the day!

  • Exploring Colonia Carlos Pelligrini: free, no guide needed, just put on comfortable walking shoes!

*NOTE:  All activities require paying admission to the Provincial Park. Visitors can get an admission bracelet for 5000 pesos for foreigners or 3000 pesos for Argentines, which is valid for 5 days.

GETTING THERE

Getting to Iberá is easy, but time-consuming. Starting in Buenos Aires, you’ll take a bus to Mercedes. We used the company ERSA and booked our tickets a couple days in advance here. The bus was surprisingly comfortable — actually the most comfy overnight bus we’ve taken in all our travels.

After you arrive to Mercedes, you need to make your way to the smaller Colonia Carlos Pelligrini  — the town you’ll stay in to access Iberá. To do so, you can either book a private transfer or wait for the combi, a public bus or van that runs between Mercedes and Colonia Carlos Pelligrini a few times a week. To reserve spots on the combi, we contacted Maria Azcona at +54 9 3773 50-7189, as she was the only contact who used WhatsApp. No one ever asked us our names or if we had a booking, so it seemed to us like it’s more of a first-come, first-serve situation. That being said, no one appeared to be left behind, though the combi was totally full. Once to Colonia Carlos Pelligrini, the combi drops passengers off at a few places (and it’s a tiny town, so everywhere is essentially walkable).

If you aren’t up for a public transit journey, according to our research, travelers also fly into the nearest airport of Posadas, rent a car there, and drive to Colonia Carlos Peligrini, but we heard that the road between Posadas is BRUTAL and more of a pain to navigate than the admittedly long public transportation options. We also met a lot of Argentinians who had driven from Buenos Aires, though that’s also quite a road-trip (~10 hours). Once you get to Carlos Pelligrini, there’s no need for a car, as you can walk from one end of the village to the other in 15 minutes.

Last updated: 15 April 2023