Esteros del Iberá

The Iberá wetlands spread some 13,000 square kilometres of floating islands, black-water lagoons and gallery forest — South America's second-greatest wetland after the Pantanal — and the marsh deer step through jade-coloured water plants with a deliberateness that suggests they know the light is good. Caimans hold the morning banks without moving; capybara graze the reed edges in groups at dusk. Nothing here is scheduled, and everything is close.

Iberá is a shallow basin that captures rain with no route to the sea; its protected heart — provincial reserve plus national park — now exceeds seven hundred thousand hectares. The rewilding here is the continent's most ambitious: giant anteaters, pampas deer, tapirs and peccaries returned, and jaguars breeding wild again after seventy years' absence from Argentine Mesopotamia. The wetland opens through several distinct portals rather than one gate — choose the portal first, then match lodging, access road and authorised activities to that exact place, with Colonia Carlos Pellegrini the best-known base for boat routes among the floating islands. Wildlife keeps its own diary: patient observation at honest distances beats any sightings list, and the slow accumulation of dawns afloat is the method.