 Host: Alejandro Larriera
When: Anytime, though specific activities may depend on time of year
Length of stay: 5 to 15 days according preferences and possibilities
Preferred number of guests: two to four
Fee:
- One person: $ 110 US a day.
- Two persons: $ 100 US a day.
- Three persons: $ 95 US a day.
- Four persons: $ 90 a day.
These prices are "all inclusive" with: Air conditioned accommodation, food prepared according to preferences, drinks, fieldtrips, horserides, boatrides, airboat rides and walks into the forest, airport transfer in Santa Fe, T-shirts, photos, video and books for memories.
ECOTOURISM WITH PROYECTO YACARE:
Our project is known as "Proyecto Yacare." We offer to small groups interested in knowing the wild wetlands of Santa Fe province in Argentina the possibility of actively participating with our team in our fieldwork.
How we work:
According the season you decide to come, you'll be able to assist hatchlings to hatch; safely capture, handle and release wild caymans for our scientist program, or just experience our wetlands. The accommodation place it is located in a ZOO which is actually a breeding station and the most complete collection of wild fauna from South America (pampas deer, pumas, jaguar, flamingos, capybaras, and much more). The fieldtrips vary from 100 to 250 kilometer of Santa Fe City. For overnight fieldtrips comfortableaccommodation is also provided at the cattle ranch "Estancias". There is no extra charge for any item.
SEASONAL ACTIVITIES:
Harvest of eggs: (Between January 10th to February 25th)
The trip usually depart from Santa Fe in the morning and takes between 3 to 5 hours to get to the cattle ranches in the north of the province (we do work in about 20 different places). Once the team arrives to the field, the cattle ranch employers ("gauchos"), prepare the horses and guide us into the forest, looking for marked nests. Every nest is collected bt the people of the team, and the eggs in the plastic containers are carried on horses.
Horseback trips take between 2 to 7 hours depending the place and the condition of the participants. Anyway, it is possible to handle intermediate duration of the trip, leaving some people in resting areas, meantime the others can keep working.
This work usually involves the capture of a few adult females when they are found close to the nest. The animals are measured, marked and released.
Regularly, the team overnights at the big, old, clean and comfortable country houses of the cattle ranches. The day after, in the morning the team harvests more nests and after noon departs to Santa Fe in order to put the eggs in the artificial incubator. This is the heaviest work of the project and requires a good physical fitness because the temperatures in the field could rise to 42°C (108° F) during the day, and the humidity is about 80%.
Night Counts: From October till April
Night count trips depart afternoon from Santa Fe to the same cattle ranches of the harvesting work. The counts start after 9.00 PM and take between 2 to 4 hours (depending the place). Counts are carried out with high power lights from airboats, canoes or horses.
This work usually involves the capture of a few animals in order to identify if they are wild or released, and to mark and measure them. Sometimes, blood samples are taken.
This trip usually require overnight at the cattle ranches. Even though the temperatures during the day could be high, all the work is carried out at night time which is OK.
The only problem could be the mosquitoes but the team uses good repellents and besides, the region is free from malaria and dengue diseases.
Hatching moment: (Middle of February to middle of March)
All this work is carried out at the Santa Fe station. Every day the incubator (with about 8,000 eggs) is checked and when a nest is about to hatch (we know because of the sound that the hatchlings produce), all the eggs of that nest are moved to the hatch room. After one day there, all the hatchlings that did not break the egg by themselves are helped by the people of the team, as the female actually does in the wild. Regularly, once that the hatching season starts, every day we have between 100 to 300 new caymans in the station. Before location at the rearing pools, the hatchlings are measured, weighted and marked.
This is an easy work and actually the incubator is quite close (50 meters) to the accommodation place where the visitors stay.
Routine measurements: (All the year)
Every month, the animals at the rearing pools are captured for measuring, and blood sampling.
Routine trips to the field: (From April to October)
This trips involves a visit to cattle ranch owners and interviews with the employers, looking for new working places in the next season. The exploration of the new places, usually requires horseback rides. This trips regularly takes two days, but the weather conditions are very good, with temperatures of between 10°C. to 22°C. This is also a very good moment for viewing many different species of wild animals.
OTHER ACTIVITIES:
For every party of visitors, there are related touring activities.
- A visit to the old Santa Fe city (Cayastá). They are a 400 year old ruins of the first place where Europeans lived in this place before they were attacked by the aboriginals. The place is very interesting and it is about 70 km. north of Santa Fe, on the San Javier river coast. The trip takes one day.
- A city tour in Santa Fe, which include a visit to the ancient Santa Fe and the 300 year old San Francisco church, and all the colonial Spanish houses around.
- A boat trip to the islands close to Santa Fe. The trip departs from Santa Fe city (on Setubal Lagoon), to the big Paraná river (15 minutes boat ride). This trip could take from half a day to two days, depending on the preferences of the visitors. Fishing is allowed in this trips but, even though hunting is legal here with a cheap licence, we do not allow guns in our boat.
- A fully guided visit to the Experimental Breeding Station in Santa Fe. This place is a zoo with the most representative collection of South American fauna in Argentina (and probably in the world). There are more than 200 species represented there, including jaguars, pumas, maned wolves, tapirs, swamp deer, pampas deer, wild foxes, capybaras, eagles, flamingos, ducks, snakes, lizards, and much more. This trip it is not actually a trip because this is the accommodation place for the visitors. In fact this is also the rearing station of the Proyecto Yacare.
LOGISTICS:
Santa Fe city is about 450 km. northern Buenos Aires. International flights arrive to Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires (Capital town of Argentina), and from there the visitors can come to Santa Fe by plane (40 minutes flight), or by bus (5 hours trip). Planes and buses depart to Santa Fe every two to four hours (depending the day).
Accommodation at the Santa Fe rearing station: This is a fully equipped house with two bedrooms with air conditioner, a bathroom with warm water, and a kitchen with a freezer with wine, beer and sodas (all you can drink included in the price).
All the trips to the field. Lunch and dinner in the field trips. (dinners are usually the typical argentine barbecue).
Meals at the typical places in Santa Fe (barbecue places and river fish places).
Every trip to the wild will be arranged according the possibilities of the visitors. Before every trip, a training session about airboating, canoeing, horse riding, eggs harvesting or caimans handling (depending the planed activities) will be carried out at the Santa Fe station.
We will organize your schedule here according the season and your preferences. Just ask and coordinate with us your trip.
You can also visit our Web page.
|
