O

N THAT SAND TRACK,

the world seemed reborn,

as if the flood waters were

just receding. Tenuous

tongues of land emerged

between water channels

shining with the last of the

day’s light. The wind

whispered in the rushes,

and flocks of black-masked finches rose on a

crescendo of birdsong. A Jurassic caiman, lying

half in and half out of the water, watched us

w it h one ba lef u l eye. Overhead, prov inces of

clouds tumbled eastward across immense

skies, toward Brazil and the ocean beyond.

“Sometimes our neighbor visits,” said Maita

Rios Noya, a Spanish biologist who arrived in

Argentina two years ago to reintroduce

indigenous jaguars to the Iberá wetlands.

She gestured to the north, far beyond the

boundaries of the old estancia of San Alonso—

her home and my lodging for the night. “Juan

FROM TOP:
Gaucho Ruben
Veron maneuvers
a canoe through
the Iberá
wetlands; a
scarlet-headed
blackbird on
Laguna
Fernández;