This last post of Paraguay covers the No 1 “Best Day Tour” and No 2 “Highlight” and “Best Pictures” of AI CARAMBA PART 2 !!!
Monday 9 March 2026 was a rest day in Asuncion for me. Ran in the morning, shopped for food and kicked off planning for my next trip. Stand by for the BEST & WORST and very last post of AI CARAMBA PART 2 to follow this post...
Tuesday 10 March 2026 was my favourite day in Paraguay because it covered the awards I mentioned above. My wilderness adventure started with my 1030am pickup by Esteban, my driver and guide for today. It ended at 930pm. Wow – read on to find out why. This was a private expedition which took me 61km north-east of Asuncion to a private nature reserve called “Estancia Puerto Olivares” (Port Olive Ranch) on the famous Manduvira River. This place is completely isolated and rich in birdlife, insects and small mammals. We drove 45km out of the capital along a reasonably good road and it was not long until the wetlands that are typical of this region appeared. Landscape is flat but a tapestry of long grass, wild-growing palms and thick forest. About 45km from the start we turned off into a dirt track and unlocked the first of 12 farm gates that kept the fatted beef of this private farm off the road. This particular landowner is also a nature buff and decided to allow my ecotour operator to bring tourists to his huge farm (ranch) to enjoy the wildlife mostly centred around a 3hr boat ride along the Manduvira and Paraguay rivers. The terrain here is lush and tropical. Heat and humidity challenge its charm but the birdlife more than makes up for it. That final 13km of dirt track to the ranch house takes ages and we stopped and walked at various points to observe 13 different kinds of birds. Pity I did not have my zoom SLR to capture them so bear with the fuzziness of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra when you see the wildlife images below. The sunset on the other hand will blow your mind !!! The eco-river tours are now so popular that the ranch owner appointed a full-time tour manager and put him and his family into his ranch house about 3km from the Manduvira River. His name is Alturo and I met him around 130pm when we arrived at his ranch house. His job is to take tourists like me on a 3hr boat ride and steer us close to each bird that he spots. His wife Di had prepared a typical Paraguayan dish called MILANESA which is a super crispy beef schnitzel shallow-fried in very hot soybean oil and accompanied by plain risotto rice. Esteban then drove me down to the Manduvira River for a swim before Alturo swopped down with his aluminium boat (Tinny) on a trailer to take me on his famous birding boat ride. The water of the Manduvira is clean but golden brown due to fine sand and silt from upstream terrain broken up by heavy rain. The temperature must have been close to 30C and all I needed was soap in my hand to justify this super-warm bath water !!! After the swim, Estaban took me on a one-hour nature walk through thick undercover forest where we spotted more bird species. This walk also revealed a variety of colourful butterflies unlike anything I had seen since the Amazon back in the original AI CARAMBA of 2011. We then returned to the river for the boat ride.
I was lucky that day on the river. Fluffy broken clouds hid the sun for half the time reducing the oppressive heat and humidity. Add to that a 20-30km/h boat ride and swimming and the 3hr return boat ride was quite enjoyable. Much to my surprise there were no mozzies – just flies. I shall let the images below describe the river and surrounding landscape to you. After 8km on the Manduvira River we entered the much larger and faster flowing Paraguay River. The Manduvira River is 212km long and very snaky and narrow. The Paraguay River is the country’s main and longest river at 1,254km but only traverses 542km within Paraguay territory since it starts in Brazil and ends in Argentina. At 9.5km from our start, Alturo and I landed the boat on a huge sandbank on the Paraguay River. Part of Alturo’s job is to keep the private ranch free of garbage left over by local fishermen. He refused my help to collect leftover garbage on the sand bank and pushed me into the water for a swim. This place reminded so much of the Zambezi River in Zambia. The boat ride back for 9.5km was magic as it was played out under a sun setting behind one huge storm cloud that looked like a giant space ship out of the movie Close Encounters with sunlight pouring out from all sides. Add to that cold local beer that Alturo had stashed away and this was a totally spiritual moment – see for yourself soon, below.
We arrived back at the jetty around 7pm and Esteban scooped me up in our mini-van to take me to a church built in 1676 on the river overlooking a now disappearing sun. Behind the church was one huge menacing storm cloud with lightning and thunder and you could see it was raining. That combination was a magical moment in time and it reminded me of similar moments on my travels most notably on a boat ride through the Pantanal Wetland of Brazil in 2011. We reached Alturo’s house around 730pm and Di had prepared some toasted sandwiches with drinks. Alturo recommended an immediate departure given that distant storm clod was moving towards us judging from the shortening time between lightning and thunder. As we got to the 2nd of 12 dirt track gates, the rain came down. I could see that Esteban was nervous because it would not take much rain or time to turn this marshy soil into mud. We had plenty of slippery moments and poor Esteban got soaking wet due to the opening and closing of the remaining 10 gates. Lucky for him the rain stopped at gate 6 and we were able to make it to the main bitumen road. That 13km of wet dirt track seemed like 133km !!! I spent the next 2hrs preparing my photos for this post and was so focused on the job that Estaban had to tap me twice on the shoulder to announce the arrival at my hotel. What a day. What an experience. What a feeling. Easily the best tour of AI CARAMBA PART 2 and the 2nd best highlight after the flight to Kaieteur Waterfall in Guyana.
Woke at 730am on Wed 11 March to prepare for my cultural trip to several indigenous sites in Aregua near Asuncion for 5hrs. Got to breakfast, sipped my coffee, flipped open my laptop and shock horror – my tour was cancelled !!! Why ? Because there was a political protest in Aregua and all roads to it blocked by police and my cultural museums and monuments closed. Bugger. So, I used the rest of the day to complete this post and carried on with the planning of my next adventure. Now I present an adventure for you which not only took me to a magical place called the Manduvira River but to a magical place in my past travels – so great when you can relive those special moments – now I hope you can too…
END OF POST
No comments:
Post a Comment