6th

They said it would only take 20 minutes to fix the brakes once they had the part.  It took until noon.  We took the truck for a test drive.  The brakes still aren’t perfect, but they said they if they bled the brakes more lines might break due to the rust.  We decided to head out and deal with them in the next major town if they didn’t get better.  They gave us the name and number of a friend who lives in Iberá Park.  We drove the long 3 1/2 hr drive going between 20 and 30 mph.  It was dusty and bumpy.  We were still so happy to be on the road!  A couple of sheep tried to commit suicide by jumping in front of our truck.  We stopped and talked to Mauricio who gave us directions to the camping area.  It was a beautiful spot and we had the place to ourselves.  We set up a night walking tour and a boat tour for the morning.  We spent the afternoon walking around the grounds.  There were 4 different capybaras and so many different birds.  We made dinner and celebrated with some wine.  Then we made dinner.  We were surrounded by birds while we cooked, one even had the nerve to steal our cheese from off our plate.  We watched the sunset and then met Antonio around 8:30 for the tour.  We think we got ripped off, but we didn’t care.  After being stuck in a city for so long we appreciated the walk in the woods at night.  The stars were so bright.  We saw many capybara and I got in trouble for letting one.  We also saw a deer bedded down.  We knew the tour was beat when he started pointing out capybara poop.  We headed back around 9:30 and slipped into bed.  We used our new “screen door” for the first time.  It worked amazing!  We slept really well until Bart was attacked by a “chicken-like bird” in his nightmare at 3 AM.

7th

We woke up at 7 AM.  Bart made breakfast and I organized the truck.  It sure feels great to be back traveling the way we want.  A group of high schoolers came over to us and were so disappointed when we didn’t speak Spanish.  They proceeded to take pictures with us and then went in their way.  Maybe we were their first Americans.  It was awkward, but they were very nice.  At 9 AM we got on the boat for our tour.  It was so awesome!  He drove the boat right up to multiple caimen crocodiles.  We were only a couple feet from them.  We saw tons of capybara and birds.  The highlight was the marsh deer.  They were huge and fuzzy.  Again, he brought us so close to them.  He was the same tour guide as last night.  We were much happier with this one.  We got back to the truck and packed up to set off to Corrientes.  The roads weren’t great at first, but they eventually turned into pavement.  We stopped in Mercedes to get some empanadas for lunch and gas.  Not a very pleasant town.  When we arrived in Corrientes we happened upon a nice place to camp.  The owner was helpful and gave us some live bait for fishing.  We tried fishing, but the current was too strong.  Then we made dinner and relaxed.  We have a dog friend who will not leave our side.  He’s a picky eater as well.