Most travellers fly straight to Iguazú and fly out again. This journey takes the long way in, through a part of Argentina that is all water and red earth: the Jesuit missions of the Guaraní, the vast Iberá wetlands with their caimans and marsh deer, and a river that falls sideways for three kilometres in the middle of the jungle. By the time the Iguazú falls appear, the forest around them makes sense.
Day 1 · San Ignacio and on to the Iberá
Highlight · The red sandstone church of San Ignacio Miní, found under the jungle in 1897.
Drive · 180 km
From Posadas the road follows the Paraná to San Ignacio Miní, the best preserved of the Jesuit missions on Argentine soil and a UNESCO World Heritage Site: a red sandstone church 74 metres long in the "Guaraní baroque" style, found under the jungle in 1897 and restored from 1940. Then 120 km more to a lodge on the Paraná at the northern edge of the Esteros del Iberá.
Night · Esteros del Iberá
Day 2 · The Iberá wetlands
Highlight · Caimans, capybaras and marsh deer among the lagoons and floating islands.
The Iberá is the second largest wetland in South America, between 15,000 and 20,000 km² of marshes, lagoons and floating islands fed only by rain. It is home to both Argentine caimans, the capybara, the marsh deer, the pampas deer, the maned wolf and the river otter, and some 350 species of birds. The day is spent in it, by boat or canoe on the lagoons, on horseback, on foot along the forest trails where howler monkeys live, or on a bicycle.
Night · Esteros del Iberá
Day 3 · The Iberá wetlands
Highlight · The lagoon and its wildlife at the hours when it is most active.
A second full day in the wetlands, for the river, the lagoon and the wildlife at the hours when it is most active.
Night · Esteros del Iberá
Day 4 · Into the Misiones jungle
Highlight · From the open wetlands into the subtropical forest of Misiones.
Drive · 335 km
A long drive north-east from the open wetlands into the subtropical forest of Misiones, by Santa Ana and the provincial roads that cross the province to the Uruguay river. The night is at a jungle lodge inside the Yabotí Biosphere Reserve, beside the Moconá falls provincial park.
Night · El Soberbio
Day 5 · The Moconá falls
Highlight · Falls running lengthwise along the Uruguay river, approached by boat.
Moconá, "the one that swallows everything" in Guaraní, is a rare thing: a fault in the bed of the Uruguay river creates falls that run lengthwise along the river for almost three kilometres. They are approached by boat. The rest of the day goes to the forest of the Yabotí, with trails, streams, kayaking and guides who read the jungle.
Night · El Soberbio
Day 6 · The red road to Iguazú
Highlight · Tea, yerba mate and tobacco sheds giving way to the protected jungle near Iguazú.
Drive · 319 km
Through the working landscape of Misiones: tobacco drying sheds, tea and yerba mate plantations, small family farms, and the road along the Paraná with views over the forest. Near Iguazú the plantations give way to the protected jungle of the national park, and the journey ends in Puerto Iguazú, where the car is returned.
