Argentine Camping Trip
My first weekend in Argentina I went 
camping with two other girls from my program. We went camping in Parque Nacional el Palmar, which is a national park and palm tree forest reserve about 5 hours north of Buenos Aires. It was a great experience, from our five hour bus ride, where we shared mate with some very friendly Argentines seated next to us, to arriving at the campsite at 2:30 in the morning and managing to set up our tent in the pitch dark, and dealing with the 50 degree nights. We spent the weekend hiking around the park, napping on the beach of the Uruguay River, and barbecuing. The park is beautiful, and looked more like an African safari than South America. There are even some ruins in the park dating from the 16th century. We also saw a ton of wildlife, including capybaras when we first drove into the park Friday night, which look simalar to an ROUS from The Princess Bride; caprintos, which look like they are related to raccoons; and lots of birds and jumping fish.
This is part of the ruins, which are old ovens they used to make stones that were used to build buildings in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
The River Uruguay borders the park, and in the above picture, the land on the left side of the river is Uruguay.
posted by aprilmae @ 11:20 AM
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